two. 1. The individuals who attended were, in general, not actuated by any real love of science, but chiefly by the impulse of fashion. 2. The Professors did not put forth their strength to open up the sciences to the understandings of their audiences, with the purpose of giving them useful information. They addressed chiefly the imagination and wonder of their hearers; they astonished and amused them; but left no permanent impression of advantage resulting from the studies. Many minds are capable of teaching a subject scientifically, who cannot impart practical and popular views of it; and only those who possess the latter gift will succeed in permanently commanding the attention of a general audi ence. The present Association proceeds on different principles. Its lecturers keep solid instruction, and the enlargement of the minds of their hearers, constantly in view, as their leading objects; adding graces and ornament only in so far as these are compatible with the main ends. The members and directors of this Association, then, are men engaged in the business of the world, yet ardently alive to the advantages of education, and desirous to induce their fellow-citizens to embrace all opportunities of acquiring it. They are connected by relationship, friendship, and business, with the very classes who require to be roused and induced to come to the halls of science. They are not themselves teachers or lecturers, and are consequently at liberty to importune, advise, and plead in favour of knowledge, in a way that no professor can possibly do, to induce hearers to come to his prelections. They are at all times witnesses of the impressions made, and are much better aware of the kind of information wanted, than any established authorities, moving in a higher sphere, and holding only a formal communication with ignorant inferiors. The Directors are regularly changed, transmitting the active management to the young and rising of each generation. It would be fatal to the project, if the same individuals were retained constantly in office. Their zeal would flag; the circle of their influence would be exhausted; and drowsiness would seize upon all the movements of the society. Another advantage of an association of this kind is, that it affords instruction cheap. The industrious classes are so numerous, that if they will only act in combination, there are no mental advantages which wealth can command that they may not attain. As a lecturer, I can certify that, independently of gain, it is far more animating and agreeable to lecture to 100 than to 20 hearers, and more exciting still to address 200 than 100. By bringing forward an audience of 200 or 300, therefore, the lecturer will be remunerated by a comparatively small contribution from each, and have his pleasure in teaching greatly increased. This Association differs in its objects from the School of Arts, and has succeeded without interfering with it. The School of Arts is designed chiefly to afford scientific instruction, which may aid operative mechanics in their trades; the present Institution embraces a more extensive range. There are numerous classes of merchants and tradesmen, besides females of every rank, to whom the instruction provided at the School of Arts is too technical to be useful; and for them chiefly is this Association intended. An objection may be urged, that only superficial knowledge can be communicated in the proposed lectures, and that the tendency of such instruction is to encourage pedantry and discontent. The line of Pope, that "a little learniny is a dangerous thing," is often quoted in opposition to all proposals for instructing the industrious classes. There is much force in this objection, if learning be confined to mere reading and writing; but it is pointless when applied to instruction in Natural Science, which is the kind of knowledge in favour of which I am now pleading. "It would be easy to shew," says Dr Caldwell, “that, under the government of the United States, a very limited amount of school-learning, diffused among the people, is calculated, politically speaking, to injure, rather than to benefit them. I allude to that degree of attainment, which qualifies them merely to read newspapers, and understand the meaning of what they contain, without enabling them to judge of its soundness. A people only thus far instructed, are in the fittest of all conditions to be imposed on and misled by artful demagogues and dishonest presses. When party spirit runs high, and the political passions become inflamed, they are induced, by intriguing men, to read papers only on one side of the question. The consequence is plain. Not being able to judge of the truth of the matter laid before them, as respects either the fitness of men, or the tendency of measures, they are liable to be seduced into the most ruinous courses. Were they unable to read at all, or did they never see a newspaper, their condition would be less dangerous. Demagogues would have less power to delude and injure them. In the present state of our country, it is emphatically true, as relates to the great body of the people, that "The only remedy for the evil consists in the reformation of the public presses, or the diffusion of more learning, knowledge, and virtue, among the people. The former, it is to be apprehended, is not soon to be looked for. On the latter alone, therefore, rest the fate of our government, and the hope of our country. Let the community at large be taught to think correctly and feel soundly, and they will not only have a secure protection against the falsehood and corruption of the presses; these sources of mischief will cease to be encouraged. They must then choose between reformation and extinction. At the present moment, some of our public presses are the arch-engines of evil to our country, and a disgrace to the human character.' I consider entire ignorance as more dangerous than partial knowledge. "Learning," in Pope's time, meant an acquaintance with Latin and Greek, and with the barbarous jargons of logic and metaphysics, which constituted the chief stock of knowledge of educated men in his day. Science has, to a great extent' been created since the time of Pope; and it has been brought within the reach of the industrious classes only within these twenty years. His remark, therefore, is wholly inapplicable to instruction in scientific knowledge. So far as it goes, it A is instruction in the laws of God's secular Providence. little of such knowledge is better than none at all, on the same principle that it is better to know our way clearly, although only for one mile, than to be entirely ignorant to which hand to turn on our journey through life. A man who has learned how to deal with two causes which produce two effects involving his happiness, is more profitably wise than he who is acquainted with only one. If the instruction be useful, the smallest quantity cannot possibly injure, while it may create an appetite for more. I deny, however, that the knowledge communicated will necessarily be superficial. If the directors and the lecturers do their duty, solid and extensive instruction in the great leading principles of the sciences may be communicated in popular lectures. An intelligent student of geography may be very far behind a practical surveyor in his knowledge of the localities of a particular country, every acre of which the surveyor has measured and delineated; but his knowledge of the relative positions of all important places, may still be * A Discourse on the Advantages of a National University, especially in its influence on the Union of the United States; delivered September 25, 1832. By Charles Caldwell, M.D. accurate, extensive, and useful. The popular student of anatomy and physiology may be far short of the skill which would enable him to tie an artery or to amputate a limb; but he may still possess precise and valuable information concerning the structure and functions of the great organs, on the proper condition of which health and life depend; and he may understand and be able practically to apply the principles thus unfolded. Lectures have also a very beneficial influence in communicating to the mind an interest in any science treated of, and a familiarity with its general principles, which enable the student to pursue his studies of it in books, with a zeal and facility which could not otherwise be attained. It has been urged against popular instruction, that, by communicating a smattering of knowledge to all, it will prevent the growth of great geniuses and profound philosophers; in short, that we shall have a superficially learned society, but no masters in science. This is the argument of a common-place mind, which has acquired celebrity by arduous study of other men's thoughts, and which dreads the approach of the vulgar to its shrine of self-importance and conceit. There is a simple answer to the argument. Genius either is, or is not, necessary to reach the profundities of science. If it be necessary, then my argumen is, that genius is an inherent quality of a few gifted minds; it goes on in its own way conquering and to conquer; it rejoices in the fellowship of human beings, although their progress be but a furlong, while it advances a league; its power is within itself, and it is not impeded by the presence of a multitude moving in the same direction. It is cheered by their proximity, animated by their applause, and feels more confident of its reward, in proportion as they become capable of appreciating its achievements. Genius, therefore, will not stop short in its high career, because the denizens of the busy world are gazing at its progress in fond admiration, and advancing in the same path, although at a vast and perhaps an impassable distance. If genius be not necessary to profound acquirements in philosophy and science, then the higher the common standard of attainment is raised, the farther ahead must those proceed who desire to hold a prominent station in public esteem. All the motives of interest and ambition by which common minds are actuated, increase in proportion as the class is numerous and enlightened by which the prizes are awarded. This objection, therefore, has no solid foundation. It has also been maintained, that the study of science incapacitates the mind, or at least gives it a distaste, for busi ness. This is an important objection, and demands serious consideration. What should we say to the assertion that the practice of walking unfitted a man for running; or that the habit of eating wholesome food had a great tendency to impair the digestive organs? We should laugh at such absurdities: because the man runs by means of the same bones, tendons, and muscles by which he walks; and walking is the moderate, natural, and healthy exercise of those parts; so that while it may well augment his capacity for running, it cannot possibly impair it, unless carried to excess. Wholesome food also is the natural stimulus of the digestive organs, and, if used in moderation, it is the best prescription for preserving them in health; and, in point of fact, there can be no vigour in the function if it be withheld. Now, the Creator has constituted external nature and the moral and intellectual faculties of man, and adapted them to each other, with the same wisdom which he has manifested in adapting the stomach to food, and the muscles to the law of gravitation. The effects of knowledge are, to strengthen the understanding and to enable it to act vigorously, and to judge soundly of the things and beings with which it is dealing. A man transacts business by means of the same mental faculties with which he studies useful science. The moderate pursuit of science, therefore, has the same tendency to strengthen, improve, and gratify the mental faculties, that the use of wholesome food has to benefit the digestive functions. It is absurd, then, to assert either that the study of nature is not calculated to strengthen these powers, or that a study which is calculated to strengthen them, unfits them for business. Facts also support these conclusions of reason. The Rev. J. R. Bryce, of the Belfast Academy, certified from experience, that boys engaged in studying Natural History and Languages, mastered their lessons in the latter with greater alacrity than did boys who learned languages exclusively; and a successful private teacher in Edinburgh has declared to me that those among his pupils who are permitted to attend to science, outstrip those who do not, even in the study of Greek and Latin. The sources of the prevalent errors on this head can be easily traced. If young persons give themselves up to the excessive and exclusive study of works of fiction and imagination, they impair their relish for, and also their powers of conducting, practical business; because most works of fiction are addressed more to the propensities and inferior sentiments, than to the moral and intellectual faculties. The re |