Excerpt from The Quarterly Journal of Science, 1864, Vol. 1
We have but to place side by side the artist whose employment has been to copy the works of nature, and the student who has enunciated her laws; or the modeller in stone, and the teacher of those truths which even stones reveal; and what a contrast do they afford! The labours of the one have been rewarded with a wreath of laurel, whilst a crown of thorns has ever fallen to the other"s lot.
How is this phenomenon to be explained? Can it be - and we make the inquiry with due appreciation of her elevating tendencies -can it be that the ways of Art are elastic and accommodating, and that without distinction of sect or creed, she has always been the servant of Theology, doing duty alike for Hebrew and Greek, Mahommedan and Christian, whilst Science has held aloof from all these denominations and has walked only with the religion taught by nature? Or is it that the truths of Science can only be understood and appreciated by the cultivated intellect, whilst the beauties of Art impress themselves upon the unaided sense?
We refrain from pressing the inquiry further, lest it be imagined that we would seek to elevate our mistress at the expense of a sister, or that wo arc assuming a petulant tone and an attitude of hostility towards one with whom we desire to walk hand in hand, and to whom also our co-operation is daily becoming more indispensable.
Leaving our readers, then, to work out the problem for themselves as regards the past, we proceed to inquire whether the existing state of things holds out a more hopeful prospect to Science and her votaries; and here the replies are sufficiently plain and satisfactory.
A certain amount of scientific knowledge is now absolutely necessary to men of all ranks, and forms an essential element in a liberal education. The influence of scientific discovery is becoming daily more powerful, and is making itself felt in almost every vocation of life. Science not only succours the wounded on the battle-field, but without her powerful aid, bravery is of no avail in the General, nor in the ranks. The loud and fluent tongue of the pleader may seek to persuade, but without the unobtrusive evidence of the man of science it fails to convince. The tiller of the soil may labour unremittingly with his hands, and waste the sweat of his brow, but his neighbour looks on, smiling, and lets the steam-engine perform his work more speedily and at a smaller cost. And so it is everywhere, - in the factory or mine, in the university or schoolroom, in the world of pleasure as in the world of pain.
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