Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On scientific education / by G. Gore. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![J them ; few persons learn sufficient of science to be able to use intelli- gently such knowledge. Through an ignorance of science our statesmen have neglected its encouragement until now our loss of trade is pressing it upon their notice. Manufacturers have neglected it, until now they find that foreign workmen excel our own. Many ministers of religion have considered science in a large degree a hostile subject, and have used their powerful social influence to detract from its value. Many also have preferred the study of the pagan authors of classical literature, and have ignored the study of the works of God in nature. “ Statesmen, heads of colleges, and ministers of religion have devoted the most important part of their educational life to the study of classics, and have left the universe of matter and science nearly a blank in their knowledge.” Is not the world of matter as extensive as the world of mind 1 and is not the study of science as important as the study of classics 1 Science is as large as the Universe, and a knowledge of it is at] least as essential to the well being of mankind as a knowledge of literature. The essen- tial parts of a well-balanced education consist not only of the expression of thought by means of language, but also the training of the powers of observation by means of scientific phenomena, and the exercise of the reasoning faculties upon cause and effect by means of a large store of scientific ideas. Science supplies us -with accurate ideas, and language enables us accurately to express them, and therefore both are essential in any scheme of general education. Science is largely the basis of lan- guage ; without a large and varied stock of scientific ideas, language is comparatively empty and inaccurate, and hence a fluent classical man can make a ready but unreliable speech. Without embodying our thoughts in accurate language we cannot speak or ■write with freedom, and we can- not so effectually reason, and, therefore, a man who is learned in science, but undisciplined in language, cannot freely communicate his store of knowledge. The obligations of science to language are great and numerous, and so also are those of language to science. It is only by means of thorough scientific training that men are able to perform the highest intellectual feats of which the human mind is capable, viz., the making of new and important scientific discoveries; the most perfect possession of a knowledge of language alone would not have enabled Newton to perform so sublime a feat as the discovery of the law of universal gravitation. Natural science is as powerful a means of developing the mind as is the study of classical languages : it is evident, therefore, that those who have the direction of large educational establishments should be learned in the one subject as well as hi the other, otherwise they will probably entertain a prejudice against the study of the subject with which they are least acquainted. It is as inappropriate for unscientific persons to have the direction of scientific instruction, as it would be for persons ignorant of classics to direct classical education; and it cannot reasonably be expected that the scientific education of this country will acquire its proper position whilst so many head-masters of our schools are compara- tively ignorant of science. Misdirected superintendence is worse than none. “ There is no instance on record of an active ignorant man who,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22444531_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
