The Portland daily press., 1880-11-08
PRICE 3 CENTS.
Education and Science.
Huxley at the Dedication of Mason Scientific G,
iege, Birmingham Enp1

Huxley at the Dedication of Mason Scientific Col
iege, Birmingham, Eng.1
pu1 ior those who meant to make scie nee
their serious occupation, or who intended !,
follow the profession OF medicine. OF who nj
to enter early upon the business of life-for all
those, in his opinion, classical education was a
mistake, and he was glad for that reason that
mere literary education and instruction; was
shut out from the curriculum of Sir Joshua
Mason's college, seeing that its inclusion
would probably lead TO the introduction of the
ordinary smattering of Latin aud Greek New
ertheess, he was the last person to question
the Importance Of genuine literary education
or to suppose that intellectual culture coulJ La
complete without il. An exclusively scientific
training would bring about "a mental twist No
surely as an exclusively literary traning.
The value of the cargo did not compensate for
ships being out of trim. and he should be
very sorry to think that the scientific college
would turn out none but lop-sded men, There
was no need, however, that such catastrophe
should happen. Instruction in English, French
and German was provided, and thus the three
greatest literatures of the modern world were
made accessible to the student French and
German, and especially the latter language.
were absolutely indispensable to those who de :
sired full knowledge in any department of sci
ence. But even supposing that the knowledge
of these languages acquired was not more than
sufficient for purely scientific purposes every
Englishman had in his native tongue an al
most perfect instrument of literary expression;
and in his own literature models of every kind
of literary excellence. f-au Englishman
could not get literary culture out of his Bible.
his Shakespeare, his Milton, neither, in his b.
lief, would the profoundest study of Homer
and Sophoces, Virgil and Horace give it to
him. Thus, since the constitution of the col
lege made sufficient provision for literary as
we'll as for scientific education, and since ar
tistic instruction was also contemplated, it
seemed to him that fairly complete culture
was offered to all who were willing to take ad-
vantage CT it. But he was not sure that, at
this point the practical man. scorched hut
not slain, might not ask what was all this talk
about culture, had to do with an institution
the object of which was defined to be '.to pro-
mote the prosperity of the manufactures and
the industry of the country" He might sug-
gest that what was wanted for this end was
not culture, nor even purely scientific disci-
pline, but simply a knowledge of applied sci
ence. He often wished that this phrase, zap
Piled science" had never been invented. For
1T suggested that there was sort of scientific
knowledge Of direct practical use, which could
be studied apart from another sort of scientif-
lc knowledge, which was of no practical utiii-
ty, and which Was termed pure science?n BuE
there was no more complete fallacy than this.
What people called applied science was moth
ing but the application of pure science to par
tlcular classes of problems. 1t consisted of de-
ductions from those general principles, estab-
lshed oy reasoning and observation, which
constitute pure science. No one could safely
make these deductions until he had firm
grasp OF the principles, aid he could obtain
that grasp only by personal experience of the
processes OF reasoning and observation ON
opened that day fulfilled the intention Of its
founder, the picked iDtelligences among all
classes of the population of the district would
pass through it. No child born in BirmiDg-
ham hereafter, If he had the capacity to profit
by the opportunities offered him, first in the
primary and other schools, and afterward in
the scientific college, need fail to obtain not
merely the instruction, but the culture most
appropriate to the conditions of his life. With
IN those walls the future employer and the fu-
ture artisan might sojourn together for while
and carry through ALI their lives the stamp of
the influences there brought 10 bear upon
tnem Hence 1t was not beside the mark to
remind his hearers that the prosperity OF in
dustry depended not merely upon the improve
ment OF manufacturing processes, not merely
upon the ennobling of the individual char
acter, but upon a third condition, namely:
clear understanding of the conditions of
social life ON the part of both the
capitalist and the operative, and their
agreement upon common principles of social
action. He must therefore confess that he
should like to see one more addition made to
the excellent scheme of education q propoundei
Tor the college in the shape of provision for
the teaching of sociology; for though they were
all agresd that party politics were to have no
place IN the instruction of the college, yet in
this country, practically governed as it was
now by universal suffrage, every man who did
his duty must exercise political functions
And II the evils which were inseparabls from
the good of political liberty were to be
checked, if the perpetual oscillation of nations
between anarchy and despotism were to be re-
placed by the steady march of self-restraining
freedom, 1t would be because men would grad
ually bring themselves to deal with political as
they now deal with scientific questions TO be-
ashamed OF undue haste and partisan prejudice
IN the one case as in the other, and to believe
that the machinery Of society was at least as
delicate as that of a spinning-jenny, and not
more likely to be improved by the meddling of
those who had uot taken the trouble to master
the principles Of its action. In conclusion he
was sure that he might make himself the
mouth-p1ece of all present in offering to the
venerable founder OF the institution which
now commenced its benefcent career, their
congratulations on the completion of his work
and IN expressing the conviction that the re-
motest posterity would point to it as a cruel Al
instance of the wisdom which natural piety led
all men to ascribe to their ancestors.