(1852, November 2) The Evening Courant, p. 3.Philosophical Institution Public Lecture—29 October 1852, Segment 5.
scheme of education which, while it embraces also looks beyond, the horizon of mere utilitarian interests. On one point in particular it is entitled to especial commendation. It appears to me that the wisdom of its directors is nowhere more conspicuously shown than in the large amount of literary, historical, and philosophical disquisitions which diversifies the system of instruction here pursued. In this respect, our institution is creditably distinguished from many other scientific associations of a popular character. This is no school of mere physical sciences, but is something far better. Appreciating at their full value the claims and the importance of the natural sciences, and assigning to them a due place in its organization, it nevertheless throws a large share of its attention on subjects of higher and wider interest. And this is undoubtedly the right course to pursue: because it eminently distinguished as the present age as it is by the splendor and variety of its scientific discoveries, by the usefulness of its mechanical contrivances, and by the beauty of its industrial productions, it is all the more necessary, on that very account, that we should continually bear in mind that it is not by the sciences alone, whether abstract or applied, that the growth of man's moral nature is effectually promoted. These, no doubt, contribute their share, and ought to receive a due amount of our attention; but not, certainly, to the exclusion of studies of a still more elevating tendency. The great men who have been instrumental in carrying forward the progress of physical research and of mechanical power are entitled to a proud position among the benefactors of mankind. And have not they or their inventions received the reward to which they have so just that claim? Has not the plough, humble implement though it be, been lifted up by reverential hands from earth to heaven and enrolled, by the gratitude of mankind, among the constellations of the sky? And if any higher honor and that could've been lavished on the steam engine and the electric telegraph, we may rest assured that it would be bestowed. Physical science, then, runs no risk of being neglected or underrated. The danger is all the other way. It is to be feared that the temper of the times is unduly bent on magnifying into exaggerated proportions, the importance of the physical sciences, of causing them to supersede a discipline more essential to the cultivation both of the heart and of the head, and to usurp the place of a more genial and ennobling heritage. It is well, therefore, that we should be taught both theoretically and practically, to know that an acquaintance was something more than physical truth is required to make an nation great and her children wise. The mechanical arts are worthy of all admiration, and our comfort tells us that their cultivation cannot be dispensed with; but history and reason alike assure us that these are not the main causes which give vigor to the heart of the people, and render their memory immortal.
"Egyptian Thebes,
Tyre, by the margin of the sounding waves,
Palmyra, central in the desert, fell;
And the arts died by which they had been raised."
