Science and Culture, and Other Essays

The Addresses, Lectures, and Essays gathered together in this volume have appeared at intervals during the past seven years, and I can give no better reason for republishing them in their present form, than the fact that three earlier collections of a similar nature have been received with favour, and, indeed, have not yet ceased to be in request.

I beg leave to offer my best thanks to the Editors and Publishers of the various publications in which these pieces have appeared, for their kindly accorded permission to reprint them.

LONDON. October 1881.

CONTENTS.

I.

SCIENCE AND CULTURE.

An Address delivered at the Opening of Sir Josiah Mason’s Science College, at Birmingham, on the 1st of October 1880 Pages 1 to 23

II.

UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL.

The Inaugural Address of the Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, 27th February 1874.—Contemporary Review, 1874 24 to 64

III.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

An Address delivered to the Working Men’s Club and Institute, 1st December 1877.—Nineteenth Century, 1878 65 to 85

IV.

ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY.

Read at the Meeting of the Domestic Economy Congress at Birmingham, 1877 86 to 93

V.

JOSEPH PRIESTLEY.

An Address delivered on the occasion of the Presentation of a Statue of Priestley to the Town of Birmingham, on the 1st of August 1874.—Macmillan’s Magazine, 1874 94 to 127

VI.

ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG.

A Lecture delivered at the Working Men’s College, Great Ormond Street, 1880.—Nineteenth Century, 1880 128 to 148

VII.

ON THE BORDER TERRITORY BETWEEN THE ANIMAL AND THE VEGETABLE KINGDOMS.

An Evening Lecture at the Royal Institution, Friday, January 28, 1876.—Macmillan’s Magazine, 1874 149 to 179

VIII.

ON CERTAIN ERRORS RESPECTING THE STRUCTURE OF THE HEART ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE.

Nature, 6th November 1879 180 to 198

IX.

ON THE HYPOTHESIS THAT ANIMALS ARE AUTOMATA, AND ITS HISTORY.

An Address delivered at the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Belfast, 1874.—Fortnightly Review, 1874 199 to 245

X.

ON SENSATION AND THE UNITY OF STRUCTURE OF THE SENSIFEROUS ORGANS.

An Evening Lecture at the Royal Institution, Friday, March 7, 1879.—Nineteenth Century, 1879 246 to 273

XI.

EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY.

The Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, vol. viii. 1878 274 to 309

XII.

THE COMING OF AGE OF “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.”

An evening Lecture at the Royal Institution, Friday, 9th April 1880.—Nature, 1880 310 to 324

XIII.

THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE.

An Address delivered at the Meeting of the International Medical Congress in London, 9th August 1881 325 to 349

I.

SCIENCE AND CULTURE.

Six years ago, as some of my present hearers may remember, I had the privilege of addressing a large assemblage of the inhabitants of this city, who had gathered together to do honour to the memory of their famous townsman, Joseph Priestley;[1] and, if any satisfaction attaches to posthumous glory, we may hope that the manes of the burnt-out philosopher were then finally appeased.

No man, however, who is endowed with a fair share of common sense, and not more than a fair share of vanity, will identify either contemporary or posthumous fame with the highest good; and Priestley’s life leaves no doubt that he, at any rate, set a much higher value upon the advancement of knowledge, and the promotion of that freedom of thought which is at once the cause and the consequence of intellectual progress.