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 181 
 
 M292o 
 
 MAIDEN 
 
 ON THE INTRODUCTION 
 OF THE NATURAL SCI- 
 ENCES INTO GENERAL 
 EDUCATION
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 ON jr >y. 
 
 f~4 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION ^v"^v 
 
 ^ttftj^ 
 OF 
 
 THE NATURAL SCIENCES 
 
 INTO GENERAL EDUCATION. 
 
 A LECTURE, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SESSION OF 
 THE FACULTY OF ARTS, IN 
 
 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON, 
 
 OCTOBER 15TH, 1838; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 REMARKS ON THE REGULATIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF EXAMINATIONS FOR 
 DEGREES IN ARTS LAID DOWN BY THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
 
 BY HENRY MALDEN, M.A., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF GREEK, 
 AND LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR TAYLOR AND WALTON, 
 
 BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS TO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 
 
 28, UPPER GOWER STREET. 
 1838.
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, 
 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Stret.
 
 Ift 
 
 ON 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE NATURAL SCIENCES 
 
 INTO 
 
 GENERAL EDUCATION. 
 
 MY first and my most pleasant duty, in commencing the 
 lectures of the present Session, is to congratulate our stu- 
 dents that academic honours are at length accessible to 
 them. The Universities of Europe were all formed ori- 
 ginally on the same models ; and however they may have 
 been impressed with national peculiarities or modified by 
 time, they still retain many features in common. They 
 constitute a sort of learned confederation, the members of 
 which are bound together, not only by participation in the 
 same studies, and a general resemblance in their modes of 
 mental culture, but by the visible bond of similarity in 
 their organization and government, in their forms and cere- 
 monies, in the titles which they confer, and the privileges 
 which they enjoy. In every country of Europe they exercise 
 a power of great moment in the working of the machine of 
 society, the power of granting diplomas and conferring titles, 
 which are received as the warrant of a liberal education. 
 As the designations of academic degrees are the same, or 
 very nearly the same, throughout Europe, they impart to 
 those who bear them a literary rank, not only in their own 
 country, but wherever learning is cultivated. It is this 
 identity and universal acceptation of academic titles which 
 
 1966517
 
 has sustained their value, notwithstanding the undue fa- 
 cility with which they are granted in some instances. Into 
 this great confederacy of learning our College is now ad- 
 mitted, in consequence of the establishment of the University 
 of London, and our connexion with that body. 
 
 The first examination of the new University will be held 
 this year; and our students will for the first time be 
 brought into competition with the pupils of other institu- 
 tions. Hitherto, however assiduous might be their in- 
 dustry, however extensive their attainments, however vigo- 
 rous their intellectual growth, no reward was held out to 
 them beyond that which is indeed the best reward of men- 
 tal discipline, the consciousness of mental strength ; but no 
 external reward was held out to them, except the prizes 
 and certificates awarded amongst ourselves. Now for the 
 first time they will receive a public attestation of their pro- 
 ficiency ; and for the first time they will have an opportu- 
 nity of attaining those distinctions and titles which are con- 
 ferred by the elder Universities of Europe, and which are 
 rendered venerable by their antiquity, and by their associa- 
 tion with the names of all the learned of past ages ; titles, 
 which, however worthless a mere name may seem, have a 
 substantial and practical value, so long as they are re- 
 ceived by the world as a testimony and pledge of intellec- 
 tual cultivation ; and which have a real worth to the bearer 
 of them, when they are attended by the consciousness that 
 they have been earned by a severe course of mental dis- 
 cipline, tested by a judicious and rigorous examination. 
 
 It is manifest that the examinations for degrees must de- 
 termine the course of study to be pursued by the candidates 
 for degrees, and will affect the method of education in the 
 Colleges connected with the University. No doubt, if the 
 subjects of examination were selected with so little discre- 
 tion, or the examinations themselves so ill conducted, that 
 a course of preparation for them should not be a course of 
 effective education, the Colleges might pursue their own
 
 plans, and forego the purchase of the shadow by the sub- 
 stance : and if such an extreme case should ever occur, I 
 trust that the teachers of this College would have self-confi- 
 dence enough to adhere to their own convictions. But in 
 the ordinary course of proceeding, it is plain that the exa- 
 minations of the University will regulate the instruction of 
 the Colleges and the studies of their pupils. It becomes 
 therefore a matter of deep interest with us to consider 
 thoroughly the Regulations on the subject of Examinations 
 for Degrees in Arts, propounded by the University of Lon- 
 don, which will come into operation this year, and to see 
 what the path is in which the University would lead us. 
 
 In a discourse like the present I cannot attempt to enter 
 into a minute examination of the details of the plan ; nor 
 is it necessary to dwell upon those portions of it which 
 accord with the practice of older Universities. Whatever 
 crude opinions may be occasionally put forth by persons 
 who are themselves ignorant of mathematics or classical 
 literature, or whose minds have been engrossed by other 
 pursuits, in this place, I feel assured, it is not necessary 
 to undertake a formal exposition of the utility of these 
 studies as instruments of education. If it be desirable that 
 the mind should be practically acquainted with processes of 
 pure reasoning, and be trained to the habit of considering 
 and determining whether its own notions are consistent or 
 inconsistent one with another, it is desirable that the study of 
 Mathematics should form a large part of all liberal education. 
 If we attach any value to the formation of habits of atten- 
 tion, and to the cultivation of the power of discriminating 
 and of observing analogies, the study of the highly artificial 
 and systematic languages of antiquity will be deemed a 
 wholesome discipline of the mind. If we prize exactness 
 in the use of speech, even in our own language, we shall 
 encourage our pupils to study it in languages which are in 
 themselves more exact, and on which, as new and external 
 objects, the mind can fix an attention, such as, without this
 
 discipline, it never can be taught to fix upon the mother 
 tongue, which use has made too familiar to be so contem- 
 plated, and the idioms of which have become confounded 
 with its own modes of conception. If we think that it 
 exalts and refines the mind to contemplate the productions 
 of genius the most elevated and the most equally sustained, 
 and thus to be trained to a delicate perception of the 
 intellectual beautiful, we shall think it right that the aspi- 
 rants to a liberal education should proceed beyond the 
 study of the mere languages of antiquity, and be able to 
 read with intelligence and pleasure the great works of their 
 literature, and especially the poets. If we believe that the 
 statesman and the legislator, or even the simple citizen in 
 this country of continually increasing freedom, can derive 
 lessons of wisdom from seeing the working of republican 
 institutions of every kind, from the closest oligarchy to the 
 most unmitigated democracy that could exist in a state of 
 society of which one of the conditions was slavery, on a 
 scale large enough for the developement of their tendencies, 
 yet small enough to be easily comprehended, sometimes 
 laid bare with minute detail by unimpassioned observers, 
 and in one great instance expounded by the most impartial 
 and the most philosophic observer that ever recorded con- 
 temporary political events, at other times exhibited by 
 the most eloquent advocates of party ; we shall think it fit 
 that all whose station in life will enable them to influence 
 the greater movements of society, should study deeply the 
 historians and orators of Greece: and if we believe that 
 it may be a wholesome warning to contemplate the corrup- 
 tions of democracy in a political body too large for self- 
 government, and the possible magnitude of the vices and 
 miseries of despotism, we shall continue to direct their 
 attention to the history of republican and imperial Rome. 
 
 The succession of political events and the developement 
 of conditions of society are not fortuitous, but follow cer- 
 tain laws, which depend ultimately upon the constitution
 
 of the human mind ; and, consequently, in the history of 
 ages and countries, widely remote, the same phenomena and 
 the same changes may be traced, modified though they be 
 to an indefinite extent by external circumstances. The 
 states of antiquity passed through the same changes in 
 their political condition as we have passed through and are 
 now passing through ; and ultimately, stages of decrepi- 
 tude, into which, I trust, we may not be permitted to 
 decline : and, therefore, I hold, that more political wisdom 
 can be gathered from the philosophic study of ancient his- 
 tory than from the study of the history of modern Europe, 
 which is only the history of our own childhood and youth. 
 
 In the writings of the philosophers of antiquity we 
 behold the most powerful intellects, using as their instru- 
 ment a language the most copious, the most flexible, and 
 the most exact ever yet applied to philosophical specula- 
 tions, exerting their utmost efforts to discover the laws of 
 mind and the principles of morals. If then it be an en- 
 nobling discipline to follow the speculations of the ori- 
 ginal thinkers of the world ; if it be desirable that those 
 whose powers of mind dispose them to meditate on such 
 subjects should know all that has been done before them, 
 and be able to trace the sequence in which philosophical 
 opinions have been suggested ; if it be important that those 
 whose high calling it is to enh'ghten the consciences of 
 their fellow men should distinguish how much of our know- 
 ledge of moral law was attained by unassisted human 
 reason, and how much we owe to the aid of revelation; 
 then, education in the highest sense of the word, the edu- 
 cation which is designed to form, not an adept in a pro- 
 fession, but an accomplished man, will continue to exer- 
 cise its pupils in the palaestra of Greek philosophy. 
 
 I had not intended to dwell so long upon this portion of 
 my subject. A zeal for my own pursuits (which, I hope, 
 will not cause my arguments to be received with any dis- 
 trust,) has led me to expatiate upon the benefits of the
 
 8 
 
 study both of the classical languages and of classical litera- 
 ture. But I feel confident, as I said before, that with this 
 audience at least the University of London needs not 
 any such justification for including classical learning among 
 the qualifications which it will require in all candidates for 
 degrees in arts, and for awarding honours and prizes to an 
 eminent proficiency in it. But there is a point on which 
 greater difference of opinion may arise, a point in which 
 the University of London has departed widely from the 
 practice of the elder Universities of this country. After the 
 first two years, when its plans will have come fully into 
 operation, and all who seek its honours will have had 
 due notice of the conditions upon which they are to be 
 granted, it proposes to require from every candidate a con- 
 siderable knowledge of several branches of natural science ; 
 not only of the mechanical laws of matter and motion, 
 which can be subjected to mathematical calculation, as the 
 University of Cambridge does, but also of Chemistry and 
 of Vegetable and Animal Physiology. And not only will 
 this knowledge be required in the final examination for 
 Degrees, but no small portion of it will be demanded in the 
 Matriculation examination: so that it will be necessary 
 either that such knowledge should be taught in schools, or 
 that students, after they enter the colleges, should devote 
 at least a year to the acquisition of it, before they proceed 
 to matriculate themselves in the University. 
 
 The great intellectual characteristic of modern times has 
 been the successful prosecution of physical science. In 
 poetry, in the fine arts, in oratory, in history, in philoso- 
 phy, in jurisprudence, modern Europe has matched itself 
 against the genius of Greece and Rome with worthy emu- 
 lation, but, according to the most favourable judgment, 
 with a doubtful superiority ; and in some kinds we are com- 
 pelled to admit that we have never yet attained to the stand- 
 ard of ancient excellence ; but in physical science the nations 
 of antiquity were but mere children in comparison with
 
 the present age. The observations of their naturalists are 
 still valuable ; but their attempts in mechanical philosophy 
 only embarrassed the subject ; and of chemistry they knew 
 nothing. From the time when Bacon in theory and Galileo 
 in practice showed the mode of observing natural pheno- 
 mena and investigating their laws, natural philosophy has 
 advanced at a continually accelerated rate. But that 
 which marks the present age even more than the progress 
 of physical science, is the practical application of science 
 to the purposes of daily life, to supply our ordinary wants, 
 and to minister to our comfort in the smallest matters. 
 Our streets are lighted, our houses are warmed, our clothes 
 are woven, our cushions are made easy, we travel by land 
 and by sea, we keep out the rain, we make our coffee, we 
 light our candles, we perfume our rooms, by elaborate com- 
 binations of mechanical or chemical science. At the same 
 time the knowledge of the animal and vegetable world has 
 been greatly extended. Every year new species are dis- 
 covered, and new products are applied to medical and 
 economical uses. 
 
 When physical science was thus extending itself, and 
 becoming daily more important in the practical concerns 
 of life, and forcing itself in its application upon the notice 
 of the most incurious, it is not surprising that an opinion 
 should spring up, that instruction in its principles ought to 
 enter more largely into the education of youth ; nor can it 
 be said that such an opinion is unreasonable. Moreover, 
 the very fact of the rapid increase of the physical comforts 
 of life from the practical application of science has very 
 much encouraged, if it did not originally generate, a disposi- 
 tion to measure the utility of everything by its tendency 
 to contribute to our mere material and physical well-being. 
 So much has been done for the corporeal part of our 
 nature, that the spiritual has gone out of our thoughts, as 
 if it were not worth attending to ; and we are disposed to 
 set little store by the old-fashioned instruction, the only
 
 10 
 
 end of which was to make us wiser and better. The rea- 
 sonable desire that the education of the boy should be 
 extended in proportion to the multiplication of the objects 
 of knowledge which are to occupy the man, and the un- 
 reasonable and grovelling wish that all that is learnt should 
 be capable of being immediately turned to account in 
 money making, with no further view than the supply of 
 bodily wants, and the purchase of bodily comforts, have 
 produced a demand for a new species of education, which 
 is united in many cases with a disposition to depreciate the 
 old methods, and especially classical learning. 
 
 The University of London has so far assented to the 
 popular opinion, that, without disparaging classical learn- 
 ing, or mathematical science, it requires in the earlier and 
 later stages of a liberal education the addition of a con- 
 siderable amount of physical knowledge. If it were pos- 
 sible for a young man simply to add this knowledge to the 
 acquisitions in science and literature which he would make 
 according to the ordinary course of education, to undergo 
 the discipline of a mathematical and classical student, and 
 at the same time to go through the peculiar training of an 
 observer of Nature, no one could doubt of the beneficial 
 tendency of the change. But if even the most industrious 
 student cannot be expected to attain proficiency in all 
 these various departments at the early age at which young 
 men are usually candidates for academic honours, and if 
 one study will be partially substituted for another, which I 
 believe will be the case, a question may fairly be raised 
 whether this change is in fact an improvement- 
 It is not my purpose, however, to raise this question 
 upon the present occasion. My design is a more practical 
 one. I am content to wait till the tendency of the course 
 of study prescribed by the University has been ascertained 
 by experience ; and therefore I will not occupy your time 
 and my own with an unprofitable criticism. As I am 
 sincerely desirous that the experiment should be tried
 
 11 
 
 under the most favourable conditions, I wish rather to point 
 out in what manner, as I conceive, physical studies can be 
 profitably introduced into the education of youth, and what 
 method must be pursued in schools, which send their pupils 
 to be matriculated in the University, in order to realise the 
 advantages which the advocates of physical science expect 
 to flow from its early cultivation. 
 
 In entering upon this discussion, I must lay down a pro- 
 position which may appear strange to those who have 
 thought little on the subject, and which can appear 
 strange only to those who have thought little on the 
 subject 
 
 The communication of knowledge is not the sole end of 
 education. It is not even the chief end. I hold the com- 
 munication of knowledge to be only a secondary object in 
 education. I speak not here of moral education, with 
 which our present discussion is not concerned : but in in- 
 tellectual education, the first and great object is to de- 
 velope and train the several faculties by exercises adapted 
 to their growing strength, so that they may attain the highest 
 possible degree of readiness and power, not, be it ob- 
 served, the highest degree to which any one may be forced 
 at the expense of the rest, but the greatest vigour of which 
 they are capable in harmonious co-operation, and thus to 
 form a perfect man, perfect, I mean, in the healthy and 
 robust condition of his whole intellectual being. 
 
 The office of education is not to make the child know 
 many things which other children do not know, but to 
 enable the man to apply his mind efficiently and confidently 
 to any study, or profession, or business to which the duties 
 of life may call him. A child or a man may know, or seem 
 to know, many things, and yet have no one power of the 
 mind, except the memory, strong and active. He may be 
 slow or inaccurate in perception ; not acute in distinguish- 
 ing things that differ ; little sensible of resemblances 
 which are not merely external ; not ready in combining
 
 his knowledge, or in deducing conclusions from experience, 
 or in proceeding from the particular to the general ; dull 
 in seeing the consequences of a proposition, or in foresee- 
 ing the consequences of an event ; without a distinct 
 consciousness of the limits of his own knowledge, or of 
 the strength or weakness of his mental powers. Such 
 an intellectual condition is likely to be the result, if, 
 during the period of what has been misnamed his edu- 
 cation, he has been merely the recipient of knowledge 
 poured into him as into an empty vessel, and has not been 
 trained to make it his own by gaining it laboriously and 
 slowly by his own efforts. The very knowledge of a per- 
 son so educated, however extensive it may seem to be, is 
 sure to be feebly impressed upon his mind, indistinct, and 
 inaccurate. On the other hand, it is quite possible for a 
 man to possess but a limited knowledge of facts, and yet to 
 have been trained to such mental habits as to be able to 
 master any ordinary subject to which he may apply his 
 mind, and, if it be of a practical nature, to judge correctly 
 in it, and to act efficiently. 
 
 It is true that the intellectual faculties can be developed 
 only by being exercised upon their proper objects, and that 
 in every process of education knowledge of something must 
 be acquired ; but it is not true that the process in which 
 the knowledge of most facts is acquired, is that in which 
 the faculties are best trained; any more than that the 
 dinner at which most is eaten is that by which the organs 
 of digestion are most strengthened. Nor is it true that the 
 knowledge which comes oftenest into practice, and conse- 
 quently is the most useful in after life, is always the best ad- 
 apted for the exercise and discipline of the immature faculties. 
 It is quite possible that studies may be preferable for the 
 purpose of training, which are of little practical utility in 
 after life ; and that a man may have derived great and last- 
 ing benefit from the exer.ise of learning something, while 
 the thing itself is afterwards forgotten. No doubt, it is an
 
 13 
 
 important problem in education to combine the communi- 
 cation of useful knowledge with the discipline of the mind. 
 But it must ever be remembered, that where the mind is 
 well trained, practical knowledge can be readily acquired 
 afterwards ; but where the training is defective, no amount 
 of knowledge can supply the want Yet nothing is more 
 common than to find parents regardless and insensible of 
 the growing intelligence of their children, and complaining 
 that they do not learn at school those practical processes 
 which are to subserve the routine of their future profession. 
 
 If the education of the body were the matter in question 
 instead of the education of the mind, the absurdity of this 
 conduct would be abundantly manifest. Put the case of a 
 boy of a weakly constitution and effeminate habits ; and 
 suppose that family connexions and interest make it seem 
 desirable that he should enter the army, and that he is 
 committed to the care of some one, an old soldier, if you 
 like, who professes to prepare him for his military career. 
 
 At the end of four or five years, when he ought to ob- 
 tain his commission, his father may think it right to en- 
 quire into his fitness for his profession. " Have you 
 studied tactics?' No, sir." "Have you studied gun- 
 nery ?" " No, sir." " Are you perfect in the last instruc- 
 tions issued from the Horse-guards for the manoeuvres of 
 cavalry ?" " I have never seen them, sir." " Have you 
 learnt the broadsword exercise ?" " No." " Can you put 
 a company of infantry through their drill 1" " No." 
 " Have you practised platoon firing ?" " No." " Can 
 you even fix a bayonet in a musket ?' " I never tried, sir." 
 
 After such an examination, we may suppose the father 
 expostulating indignantly with the veteran under whose 
 care his son had been placed. The latter might reply : 
 " Sir, when you entrusted your son to my training, he was 
 weak and sickly : he had little appetite, and was fastidious 
 in his eating : he could bear no exposure to the weather : 
 he could not walk two miles without fatigue : he was inca-
 
 14 
 
 pable of any severer exercise : he was unwilling, and, in- 
 deed, unable, to join in the athletic sports of boys of his 
 age. Now he is in perfect health, and wants and wishes 
 for no indulgence : he can make a hearty dinner on any 
 wholesome food, or go without it, if need be : he will get 
 wet through, and care nothing about it: he can walk 
 twelve or fifteen miles a-day : he can ride ; he can swim ; 
 he can skate ; he can play a game of cricket, and enjoy it : 
 though he has not learnt the broad-sword exercise, he 
 fences well: though he has never handled a soldier's 
 musket, he is an excellent shot with a fowling-piece : he 
 has a firm foot, a quick eye, and a steady hand : he is a 
 very pretty draughtsman : he is eager to enter his pro- 
 fession, and you may take my word for it, sir, he will 
 make a brave and active officer." 
 
 Such a defence, I think, would be conclusive. So it is 
 with mental training. Mental health and vigour and acti- 
 vity are a sufficient vindication of the discipline by which 
 they are produced, although the acquirements necessary 
 for a business or a profession may have been delayed in the 
 cultivation of them. There is no profession, no station in 
 life, in which a love of intellectual exertion, a habit of at- 
 tention, a retentive memory, a quick discernment, a com- 
 prehensive capacity, clearness of views, and soundness of 
 judgment, a knowledge of the use of knowledge, that habit 
 of mind, in short, which by experience and reflection gathers 
 WISDOM, is not far more valuable than any amount of mere 
 knowledge. 
 
 Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, 
 Have oft times no connexion. Knowledge dwells 
 In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; 
 Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. 
 Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, 
 The mere materials with which Wisdom builds, 
 Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, 
 Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.
 
 15 
 
 The question therefore to be determined is this : In what 
 manner must the instruction of youth in physical science 
 be conducted in order to render it an efficient mental discip- 
 line ? Before we can answer this question satisfactorily, 
 we must consider what mental faculties the study of physi- 
 cal science is fitted to exercise and develope. Objects are 
 to be examined and phenomena observed : and thus, in the 
 first place, the bodily senses are exercised ; and next, those 
 faculties of the mind are brought into play, by which we 
 take cognizance both of things, with their accidents of 
 shape, size, position, and colour, and of events. Thus what 
 is called the power of observation is strengthened, and 
 habits of attention and accuracy are formed. When a con- 
 siderable number of individual objects are known, differ- 
 ences and resemblances may be noticed, and the mind 
 be taught to discriminate and compare. The individual 
 objects, according to their differences and resemblances, 
 may be divided into a species and comprehended in ge- 
 nera. The process of classification will thus begin, and 
 the mind will be accustomed to intellectual order, and 
 the methodical arrangement of its knowledge. In like 
 manner, when a considerable number of phenomena have 
 been observed, that which is accidental and extrinsic 
 in the individual cases may be distinguished from that 
 which is essential ; and thus the mind will learn to gene- 
 ralize. The relation of effect and cause will begin to be 
 perceived ; the faculty which perceives it, and which in- 
 stinctively seeks it, will be exercised ; and the mind will be 
 gradually trained to recognise the relation where it sub- 
 sists, and what is perhaps a habit more difficult to acquire, 
 to abstain from supposing it where it has no real existence. 
 In other words, it will learn the process of induction ; the 
 only method by which any truth can be discovered, which 
 is external to the mind itself, and not immediately an ob- 
 ject of the senses. Thus, while mathematical science is the 
 practical discipline of the pure reason, and literature cul-
 
 16 
 
 tivates the imagination and the taste, and addresses itself 
 also to the moral faculties ; physical science, by its very 
 nature, is fitted to exercise all those faculties, which are 
 conversant with the material world and its phenomena. 
 
 But in order that it may really supply this discipline to 
 the mind, it is absolutely necessary that the pupil should 
 be employed with things themselves, and not merely with 
 the names and descriptions of things ; and that he should 
 himself observe, himself compare and arrange, himself fol- 
 low the processes of induction, and gradually be led to 
 originate them ; in short, that he should in a great mea- 
 sure make his science for himself out of facts ascertained 
 by himself, and not receive it ready made either from the 
 lips of a teacher or from books. This, I am aware, is not 
 the speediest way of imparting knowledge ; nor will it en- 
 able the young student to parade extensive acquirements ; 
 but it is the true mental discipline ; and it is moreover the, 
 only way in which the foundations of true knowledge can 
 be laid. 
 
 Science learnt merely from lectures or from books is 
 little more than an exercise of the verbal memory, and is 
 positively hurtful to the mind by accustoming it to be con- 
 tent with faint ideas and vague notions. In Chemistry, for 
 example, a pupil may learn the names of the elementary 
 substances, and of many of their combinations, and be able 
 to tell of what these combinations are composed, and by 
 what processes they are formed and analysed ; he may be 
 dexterous in manoeuvring the symbols of chemical notation, 
 and by this technical memory may register in his head a 
 vast number of facts; and yet he may know nothing really 
 of chemistry, and have exercised no one faculty of his mind 
 except the memory of words and other arbitrary symbols. 
 That he may really have ideas, he must himself see and 
 handle and smell the substance of which he talks ; and that 
 his ideas may be vivid, and distinctly impressed upon his 
 mind, he must see and handle and smell often. That he
 
 may be trained to observe and to reason upon chemical 
 matters, he must not only read about experiments ; it is 
 not even enough that he should see experiments performed 
 by another ; he must to some extent make experiments for 
 himself. Hah a dozen experiments made by himself will 
 both give him clearer knowledge, and do more to form in 
 him a scientific habit of mind, than a hundred experiments 
 witnessed in the lecture-room. A teacher who seeks to 
 convey a thorough knowledge of his subject, and to en- 
 able the learner to acquire knowledge for himself, will 
 not be content with placing before him similar com- 
 pounds, and telling him of what they are compounded, 
 and why they are similar: he will make him himself 
 observe and ascertain their similarity, whether from the 
 resemblance of their external characteristics, or from the 
 similar effects which they produce; and then make him 
 analyze them for himself, and so learn experimentally the 
 similarity of their constitution. The Practical Class is 
 the class of mental discipline in chemistry. A student 
 thus trained will not only acquire chemical knowledge, 
 but he will know how to acquire a knowledge of anything 
 else that can be submitted to his senses. 
 
 In like manner, if a student is to acquire a real know- 
 ledge of Botany, and if this science is to be made a mode of 
 mental discipline, which is to supply the place of any 
 part of that method of education by which our youth have 
 hitherto been trained, it is not enough that he should learn 
 by rote " the Characters and Differences of the principal 
 Natural Classes and Orders of Plants belonging to the 
 Flora of Europe, in the Botanical Classification of De Can- 
 dolle ;" it is not enough that he should hear from the lips 
 of a teacher the definition of a family or a genus, and that 
 a single species should be handed round in the class as a 
 specimen. He should examine minutely several species, 
 and know them familiarly by sight. He should himself find 
 out the points of resemblance which constitute the generic
 
 18 
 
 character, and mark the points of difference which distinguish 
 the species. In Vegetable Physiology he must not merely be 
 able to repeat accounts of microscopic observations which 
 he has never verified. He must see with his own eyes the 
 facts upon which the science is founded, and himself go 
 through the processes of induction by which the functions 
 of the several parts of a plant are ascertained. And though 
 the knowledge thus gained may seem smaller in amount, 
 and take a longer time in acquisition, than that which might 
 be poured into the memory by an over-zealous teacher, 
 it will be more lively and more permanent, and create in 
 the process of acquisition a philosophic habit of mind. 
 A quicker method and a greater amount of facts may be 
 necessary in the preparation for a profession ; but in this 
 shape alone can Botany claim to be considered as a mental 
 discipline, and an instrument of general education. Pre- 
 cisely the same remarks are applicable to Zoology, and to 
 every other branch of physical science. 
 
 If then these principles are sound, it follows that, in or- 
 der to render the study of physical science a wholesome 
 mental discipline, the schools which profess to teach it 
 must be very amply provided with the appropriate museums 
 and the means of chemical experiment, as well as with in- 
 structors who will make use of these museums and labora- 
 tories in the practical method which I have attempted to 
 describe. And if the University of London wishes that its 
 graduates should go forth to the world with the same vigour 
 of understanding as those who have been trained after the 
 old fashion, it must take especial care to frame its exami- 
 nations in physical science in such a manner, that the mere 
 reader of books and listener to lectures shall not be able to 
 pass through them. 
 
 I believe that the difficulty of forming the necessary col- 
 lections is the reason which has prevented many intelligent 
 schoolmasters from attempting to teach physical science, 
 and has been the cause of the failure of the attempt in
 
 19 
 
 many cases in which it has been made. That sect of edu- 
 cationists who affect to extol what they call real knowledge, 
 and to decry the study of the classical languages and litera- 
 ture, talks much of the superiority of the study of things 
 over the study of words. Their proposition is true in itself, 
 but is generally entirely misapplied. The study of things 
 is better than the study of words, because the pupil forms 
 more vivid, more exact, and more permanent ideas of what 
 he has immediately before him, than of what he only reads 
 about and hears about. And, no doubt, the boy who has 
 an air-pump in his hands, and performs experiments with 
 it himself, is gaining more real knowledge, and training his 
 faculties better, than if he were reading a criticism on 
 the ^Eneid without having read the .ZEneid itself. But 
 in most seminaries, however sounding their pretensions, 
 the museum and the apparatus-room and the laboratory 
 are scantily furnished : even pictures are soon exhausted : 
 and the pupil goes on reading and hearing of animals and 
 plants and minerals which he has never seen, and 
 machines which he has never handled, and manufactures 
 which he has never witnessed, of lemures and cuttlefish, 
 palms and eucalyptuses, selenite and steatite, and, it may 
 be, even of divers protochlorides and deutoxides ; and the 
 teacher boasts that he is teaching things, while all with which 
 he is loading the memory is mere words. 
 
 Even in the most simple and elementary teaching of 
 things after the Pestalozzian model, it is much more easy 
 than theorists are aware of, to fall into this error. There 
 is a little book in great vogue, and of considerable merit, 
 the " Lessons on Objects" as given in Dr. Mayo's school 
 at Cheam ; but I never yet saw this book in the hands 
 of a teacher without finding that the little pupils during 
 the greater part of their lesson were not really learn- 
 ing the properties of Glass, or Chalk, or Copper Wire, 
 but were in fact learning the meaning of sundry hard 
 words, such as " transparent, opake, friable, malleable, due-
 
 20 
 
 tile, insipid, sapid ;" very useful knowledge, no doubt, but 
 not exactly knowledge of things. 
 
 But when a boy is learning Greek or Latin, the words 
 themselves are the things with which his mind is busied, 
 and these he has perpetually before him. He is not 
 merely told about them; but he sees them, reads them, 
 pronounces them, writes them, uses them. Every classical 
 book that he reads is to him and his master an inexhausti- 
 ble museum of them : he is always trying experiments 
 with them with more or less success, analysing and com- 
 pounding, that is, translating and writing exercises: and 
 thus the ideas which he conceives of their formation and 
 analogies, their derivation and composition, and the laws of 
 their structure in sentences, attain at last to the distinct- 
 ness and precision which belong to the ideas of objects 
 with which the mind is immediately and practically conver- 
 sant. In the spirit, if not in the letter, this is a study of 
 things. And this I believe to be the cause, why the study 
 of the ancient languages, even in those who do not carry 
 it far enough to make much progress in the literature, is 
 found, by an amount of experience which no theory can 
 countervail, to be most beneficial in developing and strength- 
 ening the intellectual faculties. 
 
 The very great evil of accustoming a student to the use 
 of mere phrases, without a distinct idea corresponding to 
 them, and the very great difficulty which a young mind, 
 without long previous training to habits of reflexion, has in 
 realising to itself abstract metaphysical conceptions, renders 
 it inexpedient, in my opinion at least, to enter upon the 
 study of mental philosophy at an early age : and I think that 
 the University of London has done wisely, in not requiring 
 any knowledge of this kind in the matriculation examination; 
 in demanding but a small portion in the examination for 
 the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and that portion relating 
 only to the philosophy of the moral sentiments, which are 
 more easily contemplated objectively by the intellect than
 
 21 
 
 the acts of the intellect itself; and in reserving the philo- 
 sophy of mind in general for the final examination for the 
 degree of Master of Arts. The practical science of Logic 
 is very properly required at the bachelors' examination. 
 
 After this discussion, I should have wished, if time had 
 allowed me, to offer some practical advice to our students 
 respecting the direction of their course of study. To a 
 certain extent the regulations of the University allow no 
 option, but require from all candidates " a competent 
 knowledge" of all the branches of the examinations. But 
 beyond this line, wherever the examiners may draw it, 
 there is ample scope for the student to follow his inclina- 
 tions or his judgment. 
 
 The first lesson which I would wish to enforce upon all 
 young minds is the inestimable intellectual and moral be- 
 nefit of studying at least one subject thoroughly, that is, 
 to the utmost extent to which their powers will allow them 
 to proceed. To those who had the good fortune to hear, 
 and the wisdom to remember, the address of Mr. De Mor- 
 gan delivered last year in this place, I need not insist 
 further upon this point. Those who missed the oppor- 
 tunity, or lacked the wisdom, I would earnestly entreat to 
 read that lecture, and to impress its principles deeply 
 upon their minds. 
 
 The next point is the selection of the subject or subjects 
 to be thus thoroughly studied. I estimate so highly the 
 benefit of mathematical discipline, that I would advise 
 every student without exception, to master thoroughly at 
 least all the pure and mixed mathematics required in the 
 ordinary examination, and not to leave any defect in this 
 department to be compensated by his attainments in other 
 branches ; and I should be glad if those who feel conscious of 
 the ability to prosecute such studies further, would proceed 
 at least to the differential and integral calculus, and its ap- 
 plication to the geometry of curves, and to easy mechanical 
 and hydrostatical problems, and get such honours as they
 
 may earn by this extension of their studies, even if they 
 do not aspire to the highest mathematical distinctions. 
 Those who are acquainted with the subject know that 
 the step from simple geometry and algebra into the alge- 
 bra and geometry of the calculus, is a step into a new field 
 of reason, and a sure test of the intellectual strength of 
 those who make it intelligently. 
 
 It will remain to be considered whether the rest of 
 the time and labour of the student should be devoted to 
 physical science or to classical literature. This is a 
 question which will generally be determined by the ulti- 
 mate destination of the student; and for this reason. 
 The benefits of the study of physical science are the 
 same in kind, to whatever extent it may be prosecuted. 
 But this is not the case with classical learning. There 
 is a certain benefit, and very great benefit, to be de- 
 rived from the study of the ancient languages, and such 
 a moderate knowledge of their literature as must be ac- 
 quired in studying the languages. But the higher intel- 
 lectual benefits which I attempted to point out in the 
 earlier part of my discourse, the cultivation of the taste and 
 the imagination, the insight into human nature and its 
 springs of action and the working of political society, 
 the profound acquaintance with philosophical speculation, 
 these are of another order, and can be attained only by a 
 long and laborious course of study and meditation. Those 
 students, therefore, who have no other object than to culti- 
 vate their minds thoroughly, and to make themselves well 
 educated men, and who have full time for such a course of 
 study, I would exhort to the assiduous cultivation of classical 
 literature. But if the time of the student is limited, and 
 he cannot hope to attain to the higher regions of classical 
 learning, but must at an early age devote his time and la- 
 bour to the cultivation of a profession intimately connected 
 with physical science, the profession of medicine, for ex- 
 ample, the profession of an architect or a civil engineer, or
 
 the direction of any process of manufacture, such a student 
 I would advise, not to aspire to any classical honours, but 
 to be content with that knowledge of the ancient languages 
 and of history which is required from all in the ordinary 
 examination ; and to devote his energy to physical science, 
 and strive to earn one or more of the Certificates of Pro- 
 ficiency which are held out by the University, and which 
 in this line of study are equivalent to their mathematical 
 and classical honours. But let him, as he values his in- 
 tellectual health and strength, at least lay the foundations 
 of his knowledge in the practical manner which I have 
 described. 
 
 LONDON I 
 
 PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTI.EV, 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
 
 ON THE 
 
 RELATIONS OF FREE KNOWLEDGE 
 TO MORAL SENTIMENT.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 1989
 
 i illl III! Illlllllllir LI! I'll II II 
 
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