Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/419

 gone by; the study of language and philology, as giving a knowledge of how men of all times and countries express their ideas and language; of logic, as pointing out the laws of thought; and, above all, that of mathematics—are all matters of the highest importance, the neglect of which would render our education incomplete and poor indeed. The same rules, however, which all acknowledge to be necessary for the teaching of physical science must be applied to the study of all these subjects. In short, the scientific method must be employed in all cases and carried out to its fullest extent." He followed these observations with a protest against the supposed materialistic tendency of scientific studies, saying: "It is true that certain opinions and professions of belief have been and will be shaken by studying the book of Nature; it is also equally true that the study of Nature does not and can not interfere with the highest and noblest aspirations of the mind of man. In the investigations of every branch of science we come at last to a point at which further inquiry becomes impossible, and we are obliged to acknowledge our powerlessness and insignificance. We can see and learn concerning only the minutest fraction of the great whole of Nature, and it is with this minute fraction alone that we, as men of science, are concerned."

Speaking of the advantage of experimental scientific research, he said that the faculties which are called into operation by its prosecution "are, in fact, exactly those which are valuable in the every-day occurrences of life, the proper employment of which leads to success in whatever channel they may happen to be directed. A man who has learned how successfully to meet the difficulties and overcome the obstacles which occur in every experimental investigation, is able to grapple with difficulties and obstacles of a similar character with which he comes in contact in after-life. It is the greatest possible mistake to suppose—as, unfortunately, many yet do—that a scientific education unfits a man for the pursuits of ordinary professional or commercial life, I believe that no one can be unfitted for business life or occupations by the study of phenomena all of which are based upon law, the knowledge of which can only be obtained by the exercise of exact habits of thought and patient and laborious effort."

Further, concerning the ennobling nature of original scientific inquiry: "Although I should be the last to contend that men of science are free from the foibles and weakness common to all mankind, I think it stands to reason that the habits of mind which an investigator must cherish are such as must raise him above the petty struggles of ordinary existence, and must, for a time at least, lift him into an atmosphere free from the cloud and smoke which too often darken the usual current of men's lives."

In his opening address to Section B, of the British Association, in 1870, he spoke of a humane and civilizing mission which science might accomplish aside from its direct end, saying, after a reference to the