has enabled man to descend to the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of the earth; to traverse the land in cars which whirl along without horses, and the ocean in ships which run ten knots an hour against the wind. These are but a part of its fruits, and of its first fruits. For it is a philosophy which never rests, which has never attained, which is never perfect. Its law is progress. A point which yesterday was invisible is its goal to-day, and will be its starting-post to-morrow.'-' Lord Bacon,' by Macaulay-Macaulay's Works, vol. vi. p. 222. Longmans, 1866.

NOTE L, p. 42.

On the Mental Training and Knowledge of the Nature and Principles of Evidence, derivable from the study of the Sciences.

From the observation and interrogation of Nature have resulted the Physical Sciences; and, independently of the vast body of verified truths which they have discovered and digested for the benefit and use of man, the study of their methods is especially important with respect to the training of the highest class of the mental faculties, and the instruction of the understanding in the nature and principles of real evidence.

'The use of the physical sciences is to train a class of mental faculties which are ignored, so to speak, by a purely classical or a purely mathematical training,—-the observation of external phenomena, and the exercise of the reasoning faculties upon such phenomena. It is the essence of scientific training that the mind finds the objects of its study in the external world.'-Dr. Carpenter's Evidence. Report of Public Schools Commission, vol. iv.

The extension of knowledge especially depends on contact with the external world.'-Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 742. Bohn, 1849.

"The faculty of accurate observation, of the classification of facts, of the co-ordination of classes or groups, the management of topics, for example, in their various orders of importance in the mind, giving to a writer or public speaker improved power of classifying all kinds of subjects. .. Order and method are the faculties which the elements and principles of science are adapted to improve and educe.' -Professor Owen's Evidence. Report of Public Schools Commission.

6

The study of Physics consists of two processes which are complementary to each other-the tracing of facts to their causes, and the logical advance from the cause to the fact. In the former process, called induction, certain moral qualities come into play. It requires patient industry, and an humble and conscientious acceptance of what Nature reveals. The first condition of success is an honest receptivity and a willingness to abandon all preconceived notions, however cherished, if they be found to contradict the truth. And if a man be not capable of this self-renunciation—this loyal surrender of himself to Nature, he lacks, in my opinion, the first mark of a true philosopher.

'The second process in physical investigation is deduction, or the advance of the mind from fixed principles to the conclusions which flow from them. The rules of logic are the formal statement of this process, which however was practised by every healthy mind before ever such rules were written. In the study of Physics, induction and deduction are perpetually married to each other.

• Thus, then, as a means of intellectual culture, the study of Physics exercises and sharpens observation; it brings the most exhaustive logic into play; it compares, abstracts, and generalises, and provides a mental imagery admirably suited to these processes. The strictest precision of thought is everywhere enforced, and prudence, foresight and sagacity are demanded. By its appeals to experiment it continually checks itself, and builds upon a sure foundation.'-Professor Tyndall, On the Importance of the Study of Physics, Modern Culture.

Physical science teaches people to judge of evidence: any one who is generally versed in physical science is accustomed to so many different modes of investigation that he is well prepared to feel the force of whatever is really proof.' -Mill, on Hamilton, p. 543.

"The processes by which truth is attained, reasoning and observation, have been carried to the greatest known perfec-. tion in the physical sciences..

'In what consists the principal and most characteristic difference between one human intellect and another? In their ability to judge correctly of evidence. Our direct perceptions of truth are so limited; we know so few things by immediate intuition, or, as it used to be called, by simple apprehension, that we depend for almost all our valuable knowledge on evidence external to itself.'-J. S. Mill, Inaugural Address to the University of St. Andrews. Longmans, 1867.

Professor Huxley, in his lecture on 'The Method of Studying Zoology' ('Modern Culture,' p. 119), has made some striking remarks respecting that profound ignorance of the value and true position of physical science which infests the minds of the most highly educated and intelligent classes of the community.' With regard to our present curriculum of education, he observes, a curious reflection arises. I suppose that fifteen hundred years ago the child of any well-todo Roman citizen was taught just these same things: reading and writing in his own, and, perhaps, the Greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and the religion, morality, history, and geography current in his time. Furthermore, I do not think I err in affirming, that, if such a Christian Roman boy, who had finished his education, could be transplanted into one of our public schools, and pass through its course of instruction, he would not meet with a single unfamiliar line of thought; amidst all the new facts he would have to learn not one would suggest a different mode of regarding the universe from that current in his own time. And yet surely there is some great difference between the civilisation of the fourth century and that of the nineteenth; and still more

8