Science and education; lectures delivered at the Royal institution of Great Britain

Front matter

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Introduction

The present volume is a reprint of one published in 1855, and now out of print, consisting of seven lectures delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1854 by seven of the most distinguished men of science of that day. The purpose of the Managers of the Royal Institution was to set before the public the views of scientific men as to the importance of making Natural Science an integral part of the education of all classes. Sixty-two years have passed and we are still so far from having carried out the views of those lecturers that a great outcry has arisen in this country — now suffering under the pressure and difficulties of warfare — to the effect that there has been " neglect of science," both in the management of great public interests and in private enterprises. It is maintained that the nation is in imminent danger owing to the ignorance of and contempt for Natural Science in the governing class, in the manufacturing and commercial classes, and among the people generally. It is pointed out that the only remedy for this is a complete change — a reformation in the education given in our schools and universities. The effort to bring about such a change began sixty-two years ago with the lectures here reprinted — and it is interesting to look back at the reasons for reform put forward by those lecturers so many years ago and to consider what value they have at the present day and why it is that they and the arguments and efforts of later reformers have had so little result.

For it is the fact that though some improvement has been made, it is very small. Our school education, especially that of the great public schools and that rewarded and encouraged by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, does not yet comprise as a necessary integral part the study of Natural Science. Natural Science is still treated as a superfluity, an " extra," tolerated, but misunderstood and misdirected (as is natural enough) by the devotees of the established old-fashioned and curious " classical curriculum," which it must eventually completely replace. The reasons which have led to the consumption of so vast a proportion of the time of the youth of the well-to-do class in a clumsy and ill-contrived attempt to force it into familiarity with the actual writings of Latin and Greek authors — an attempt which is almost invariably unsuccessful — are not far to seek. Three hundred years ago a well-educated " gentleman " must read Latin if he would read anything and must Avrite it too. This is convincingly set forth by the father of the present Minister of Education in a paper contributed by him to a volume of Essays on a Liberal Education,* which contains several other essays of a most instructive character for those who are to-day considering the question of Educational Reform. Among these is an invaluable chapter "On the History of Classical Education" by the late Charles Stuart Parker, M.A., Fellow of University College, Oxford, which furnishes to-day — as it did when written — information of fundamental importance as to how it has come about that this country is subjected to the preposterous and disastrous tyranny of " classical education." The genial and gifted Lord Houghton (Monckton-Milnes), in the essay contributed by him " On the Present Social Results of Classical Education," deplores the fact (and none could speak with greater authority than he) " that the whole of the boyhood and the greater part of the youth of the higher classes of our countrymen should be occupied with the study of the language, history, and customs of two nations which have long disappeared from the surface of our globe, and which, but for the common conditions of all humanity, have no more relation to us than the inhabitants of another planet." He, a scholar and man of letters, asks whether " the imagined attributes of a classical education are not referable to circumstances and treatment with which classics as such have nothing whatever to do — and whether the most enlightened advocates of the retention of the system are not unconsciously affected by a powerful literary superstition ? " He makes the very significant observation that "it is as the proper and recognized education of the governing classes, the honourable accomplishment of all aristocracy, that the classical * Macmillan, 1867.

INTRODUCTION 7

teaching endures so firmly, even now when it has ceased to be the mysterious speech of the Church and when it is no longer the authoritative exposition of Law. For as soon as it became the qualification of a gentleman to read and write at all, it was Latin that he read and wrote."

After showing how small is the amount of classical learning carried over from school and college into later life by those whose whole youth is recklessly sacrificed to "a classical education," Lord Houghton says : " However imperceptible may be the effects of classical training in after-life, either in manners or in mind, as long as the fashion of the education endures, our higher classes will continue to subject their children to it, and the large portion of society which desires, at any cost, to give their progeny what seems to them the best start in life will follow the example. Whilst a boy is placed, on his arrival at school, according to his classical attainments, the preliminary classical teaching becomes necessary, whatever be the sacrifice of other natural, opportune, or more available instruction." " It will," he continues, " require some very strong impulse to decide what may be called the upper stratum of the middle class to accept for their families any education which almost appears a descent in the social scale. And yet it is precisely this class which is the most palpable sufferer under the present system. . . . When the young manufacturer or banker begins what is to be the real business of his existence, he leaves irrevocably behind him every object to which his ten (or more) early years have been devoted, retaining little beyond some taste in which only the idle or the independent can indidge with impunity, and a certain dim conceit of his own superiority over his fellows, who have only received a commercial training." * * * * #

" There are too many flagrant examples in the history of the human mind of the persistent adherence, not only of public opinion and private judgment, but of the religious conscience and the moral sense, to forms and ceremonies after the belief on which they were founded have faded into shadows, to permit the hope that any amount of negative experience will bring about a reformation in the matter we are now considering. It is solely to a growing conviction of the necessity of larger and wiser instruction of our governing classes, if they are to remain our governors, that we must look as the source of any beneficial change."

After sketching the extreme self-satisfaction with which we regard the character of the present English gentleman, and the notion that he is an ideal of humanity which it is almost sinful to desire to improve or transcend, and that if he in his youth were taught more or otherwise than he learns at present some mysterious degradation would inevitably ensue, Lord Houghton declares that there never was a greater eonfusion of post hoc with propter hoc than the theory that the English gentleman's actual excellent characteristics have anything to do with the method of instruction which has been imparted to him. " It is admitted," he says, " that he may become a landed proprietor without a notion of agriculture — a coal-owner without an inkling of geology — a sportsman without curiosity in natural history — a legislator without the elements of law ; it is assumed that he may frequent foreign countries without having even a convenient intimacy with their language, and continually incur that ridicule which is especially disagreeable to his nature ; and yet, in the face of all these admissions,* every attempt to supply these deficiencies is regarded as little less than revolutionary."

Such is the indictment of " the classical education " drawn up fifty years ago by a great " man of the world," one who knew perhaps more intimately than any man of his day, or of later years, both what he was condemning and what he desired to substitute for it.

We are frequently told that of late years there have been great changes in these matters, that science and modern studies have been " introduced " into the great public schools. It is, on the contrary, the fact that " the classical education " still dominates, still continues its hopeless and injurious sacrifice of the golden hours of youth to its ill-eontrived methods of teaching and its wasteful and unsuccessful attempt to develop the intelligence of English boys by forcing upon them, necessarily to the exclusion of other subjects, a mechanical study of the language, literature, and history of the ancient Greeks and Romans. This system continues, although it is universally admitted that it completely fails to impart even a modicum of knowledge of these subjects — worthless though it would be

* And we might add'to this list his ready admission of and satisfaction with the fact that he knows nothing of the beauties of the English language and its literature. — E. R. L.

INTRODUCTION 9

were it gained — to the great majority of those submitted to it.

If one wishes to know what is the amount of the concession which has been made in our great schools to the demand for education in the Natural Sciences, one has only to note how small is the number of hours a week assigned to those sciences for all boys in the school, how few is the number of masters employed, how inferior their position, how little is the reward and encouragement for scholars, and how small the pay accorded to all concerned in Natural Science as compared with the corresponding figures relating to the arrangements made for the dominating, monopolizing, " classical " studies.

The Natural Sciences will not obtain the attention and position in schools which is necessary for our national welfare until the ancient traditional " classical curriculum " is not merely modified and reformed but literally swept away. This, of course, would not in any way interfere with the serious study in this country of classical literature and classical archaeology, but, on the contrary, assist its development.

The most interesting and in many respects the most valuable of the seven lectures now reprinted is that by the great Faraday. I should have been content to reprint this lecture by itself, but Mr. Heinemann was willing to reproduce the whole series. Not the least of the features of interest attaching to these lectures is the presentation in each of them of the conclusions and opinions held by an authority in his subject three-quarters of a century ago. In regard to some of the subjects — for instance, Chemistry treated by Professor Daubeny of Oxford, and Physiology dealt with by Sir James (then Mr.) Paget — the progress of knowledge has been so great in the interval that much of what is said by the lecturer is not precisely what he would say were he speaking to-day. Facts have been ascertained and theories established to which he would have made allusion. But the spirit and purpose of his discourse is none the less of value to-day as it was when given.

It would be foreign to my present object to annotate the lectures of these great advocates of educational reform so as to show in what respects investigation has progressed since their day. It was my privilege in early years to listen to the teaching of some of them and to know all of them as friends of my father. I am glad to be able to reproduce to-day their testimony in favour of the reform in education which consists in giving a leading place in it to a well-considered study of Natural Science — whilst abolishing altogether the hopeless waste of time and effort arising from the bad methods and mistaken purpose of the traditional study of Latin and Greek.

In the case of Faraday's lecture on " Mental Education," I have been so much impressed by its beauty, interest, and value that I have looked up and made notes relating to one or two matters which are referred to in it, but are obscure to a modern reader— such, for instance, as " The Pasilalinic Compass." I have also, with the aid of my friend Mr. Mark Barr, written some notes which will render some of Faraday's references to his own researches intelligible. These several notes are referred to in the text by letters of the alphabet and are printed at the end of the lecture.

Faraday was a vigorous opponent of the various fanciful notions as to table-turning, spirit-rapping, and animal magnetism current in his day. The modern " occultist " will not hesitate to endeavour to weaken Faraday's " authority " in that opposition by pointing to the fact that he is careful " to claim an absolute distinction between religious and ordinary belief," and that he says, " I shall be reproached with the weakness of refusing to apply those mental operations which I think good in respect of high things to the very highest."

Let me at once plainly say that in the Court of Science evidence as to personal authority is not admitted.

The conclusiveness of an experimental demonstration and the value of the experimental method are not affected either by the religious beliefs or private opinions of the individual to whom we are indebted for the demonstration, provided that it is a demonstration. The opinions of Sir William Crook es, of Sir Oliver Lodge, and the late Dr. Russel Wallace with reference to so-called " spiritualism " have not in the smallest degree lessened the value of their contributions to Chemistry, Physics, and Zoology- ( ' ■

E. RAY LANKESTER

October 2, 1 16

Preface

TO THE FIRST EDITION

When the Managers of the Royal Institution decided, early in the present year, upon the delivery, after Easter, of a series of Lectures on Education, they appointed a sub-Committee to make the necessary arrangements.

In accordance with the usual practice of the Royal Institution, the number of the Lectures was unavoidably limited by the number of weeks between Easter and the termination of the session ; and the subjects of the Lectures could not be altogether determined by the Committee, but in some instances were necessarily left to the choice of the Lecturers. Each Lecturer, also, was at perfect liberty to treat his subject in his own mode ; and no communication upon the course to be pursued took place between the different Lecturers.

Hence arises the limitation of the subjects and the want of mutual connexion between the separate members of the group of discourses here presented to the reader. Whatever advantage may be thus lost is, however, perhaps counterbalanced by the increased authority which is derived from so many and such considerable names being found pleading together, though independently of each other, the important cause of Scientific Education.

It appeared desirable to the Managers that the widest circulation should be given to these Lectures ; and each Lecturer, by placing his manuscript at the disposal of the Committee, has conferred an additional favour on the Members of the Royal Institution, and has rendered possible the publication of the present volume, which it is hoped will materially assist in promoting the extension of Scientific Education among all classes of the community.

Royal Institution October 1854

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF THE LECTURERS

Daubeny, Charles Giles Bridle, chemist and botanist, was born in Gloucestershire in 1795, and educated at Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became Professor of Chemistry and also of Botany. Daubeny devoted himself chiefly to the study of natural phenomena in their relation to chemical science. His chief work is A Description of Active and Extinct Volcanoes (1826), but he wrote also on the Atomic Theory, on Agriculture and Climate, as well as many papers on botanical subjects. He died in 1867.

Faraday, Michael, was born in London in 1791. His father was a blacksmith and he often spoke of his love for a smith's shop and the work of the forge and hammer. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to a bookbinder, but becoming interested in science, he attended lectures at the Royal Institution, and in 1813 became laboratory assistant to Sir Humphry Davy. He soon began research work on his own account, and a series of experiments on chlorine compounds and the liquefaction of gases led to his discovery of principles of great importance. In 1827 he succeeded Sir Humphry Davy as Fullerian Professor of Chemistry, a position which he retained until 1865.

Faraday made many discoveries in chemistry and experimental physics, but the great work of his life is the series of experiments which, for forty years, he carried on in the domain of electro-magnetism. His discoveries were of great value and have laid the foundations of our knowledge of electricity. It was Faraday's discovery that an electric current is induced by the rotation of a magnet in the neighbourhood of an induction coil which led to the invention of the dynamo. Michael Faraday was a master of clear and lucid exposition, and his lectures at the Royal Institution are models of simplicity and happy illustration. He held very high what he spoke of as " the honour of a philosopher." He died at Hampton Court in 1867.

Hodgson, William Ballantyne, educational reformer and political economist, was born at Edinburgh in 1815, the son of a printer. He entered the Edinburgh High School, and after working for some time in a lawyer's office proceeded to Edinburgh University. In 1844, after a period spent in lecturing on literature, education, and phrenology in various towns of Scotland, he became principal of the Liverpool Institute, and in 1847 went from there to the Chorlton High School, Manchester, where he remained until 1851. He lectured on economics at the Royal Institution in London and was examiner in political economy in the London University from 1863 to 1868. In 1871 he returned to Edinburgh to fill the new chair of commercial and political economy and mercantile law which had been founded very largely as a result of his own efforts, and this post he held until his death in 1880. He was president of the Educational Institute of Scotland in 1875.

Latham, Robert Gordon, M.D., was born in 1812, and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He studied philology in Hamburg, Copenhagen, and Christiania, and in 1839 was elected professor of English Language and Literature in University College, London. Some years later he entered the medical profession and obtained the degree of M.D. at the University of London, but he soon abandoned medicine and devoted himself almost entirely to his favourite pursuits of ethnology and philology. Latham was the author of many works on the English language. He died at Putney in 1888.

Paget, Sir James, Bart., one of the greatest surgeons and pathologists of modern times, was born at Yarmouth in 1814. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1875, Bradshawe Lecturer in 1882, Sergeant-Surgeon to Queen Victoria and Consulting Surgeon to King Edward VII* when the latter was Prince of Wales. His two chief works are Lectures on Surgical Pathology (1853) and Clinical Lectures (1875). He died in 1899.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF THE LECTURERS 15

Tyndall, John, physicist, was bom in Ireland in 1820, the son of a small tradesman. After working for some years on the ordnance survey, and as a railway engineer in Manchester, he went to Germany, where he studied at Marburg and in Berlin, carrying on "researches in physical science. He was elected F.R.S. in 1852, and in the following year became professor at the Royal Institution. A visit to the Alps, made in company with Professor Huxley in 1856, resulted in the famous work on the structure and motion of glaciers, and in 1859 he began those investigations into the phenomena of radiation upon which his fame chiefly rests. Tyndall was an extremely iable lecturer and writer, his style being distinguished by ' vigour and lucidity of expression. His best-known works are \Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion (1863), Fragments of Science for Unscientific People (1871), and Hours of Exercise in the Alps (1873), but he wrote many other books, including volumes on Light, Sound, Electricity, and the Forms of Water in Clouds, Rivers, Ice, and Glaciers. His works have been translated into most European languages. Tyndall died in 1893.

Whewell, William, D.D., was born at Lancaster in 1794, the son of a joiner. He was educated at the " Blue School " in Lancaster, and afterwards at Heversham Grammar School, whence he proceeded, as an exhibitioner, to Trinity College, Cambridge. His career at the University was exceptionally brilliant. He gained the Chancellor's medal for the English prize poem in 1814 ; two years later he graduated as second wrangler and second Smith's prizeman, and became a Fellow and Tutor of Trinity. In subsequent years he filled the chairs of Mineralogy and Moral Philosophy at Cambridge. In 1841 he married and became Master of Trinity, and in 1855 was Vice- Chancellor of the University. He was a prolific and lucid writer and lecturer, producing works on astronomy, electricity and magnetism, moral philosophy and ethics. His most valuable and readable book is that on The History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. He died at Trinity in 1866.