Lord Carnarvon gave a long and, in parts, very striking
address on Saturday to the Birkbeck Literary Scientific Institu- tion, in Chancery Lane. His main subject, after stating figures and so on, was that the ancient teaching in art, literature, oratory, and the like, was being superseded almost entirely by the teach- ing of science, either in the form of which the late Mr. Bra.ssey was an example—namely, science applied to mechanical improve- ment—or science as one hitherto overlooked division of mental effort, or science as the only guide to life. Of the first two he approved, but he questioned whether the third, when unrestrained, did not tend to isolate and therefore to harden itself, till the man of mere science might become a. more imperious and. exacting master than. the okl man of refine-
ment he was superseding. Exclusive power in his hands was more to be dreaded than in any, for he would have less of sym- pathy and more of hard conviction. It was not for mercy that the early chemists were renowned, but for poisoning ; nor is, we may add, vivisection impossible to the man of science, of all men. Science calls out the intellect, but neither the affections nor the emotions, and least of all the emotion cif reverence. It is all true, and most true, we may add, of those who believe, with Mr. Disraeli, that Sanitas is before all things. There is no cruelty from which a sanitary reformer will shrink, if only he can preserve
few lives their owners do not care particularly about.
Previous page
