Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science / delivered by the President, William Robert Grove ... in the Theatre, Nottingham, August 22, 1866.

  • Grove, W. R. (William Robert), 1811-1896.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science / delivered by the President, William Robert Grove ... in the Theatre, Nottingham, August 22, 1866. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/40 (page 3)
    those institutions of the country which can to the p^reatest degree ju’omote its cultivation and reap from it the greatest benefit. You will probably agree with me that the i)riiicipal educational establishments on the one hand, and on the other the Government, in many of its departments, arc the insti¬ tutions which may best fulfil these conditions. The more early the mind is trained to a pursuit of any kind, the deeper and more permanent are the impressions received, and the more service can be rendered by the students. “ Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem Testa diu.” Little can be achieved in scientific research without an acquaintance with it in 3’outh; you will rarel}’ find an instance of a man who has attained any eminence in science who has not commenced its study at a very early period of life. Yothing, again, can tend more to the promotion of science than the exertions of those who have early acquired the ?idos resulting from a scientific education. I desire to make no complaint of the tardiness with which science has been received at our public schools and, with some ex¬ ceptions, at our Universities. These great establishments have their roots in historical periods, and long time and patient' endeavour is requisite be¬ fore a new branch of thought can be grafted with success on a stem to which it is exotic. Yor should I ever wish to see the study of languages, of history, of all those refined associations which the past has transmitted to us, ne¬ glected; but there is room for both. It is sad to see the number of so-called educated men who, travelling by railway, voya^ng by steamboat, consult¬ ing the almanac for the time of sunrise or full-moon, have not the most elcmentar}’ knowledge of a steam-engine, a barometer, or a quadrant; and who will listen with a half-confessed faith to the most idle predictions as to weatlicr or cometic influences, while they are in a state of crass igno¬ rance as to the cause of the trade-winds or the form of a comet’s path, ^lay we hope that the slight infiltration of scientific studies, now happily commenced, will extend till it occupies its fair space in the education .of the young, and that those who may be able learnedly to discourse on the I'lolic digamma will not be ashamed of knowing the princiidcs of an air- })ump, an electrical machine, or a telescope, and will not, as Lacon com¬ plained of his contemporaries, despise such knowledge as sometliing mean and mechanical. To assert that the great departments of Government should encourage physical science may appear a truism, and yet it is but of late that it lias been seriously done ; now, the habit of consulting men of science on im¬ portant (piestions of national interest is becoming a recognized practicts and ill a time, which may seem long to individuals, but is short in the n 2