An Address to Men of Science: Calling Upon Them to Stand Forward and Vindicate the Truth.... — John Shaqi
An Address to Men of Science: Calling Upon Them to Stand Forward and Vindicate the Truth....Carlile, Richard
Religion
An Address to Men of Science: Calling Upon Them to Stand Forward and Vindicate the Truth....
Carlile, Richard
Science; Superstition
Many of Nature's Nobles have passed through life unknown and unheeded
entirely from the influence of a superstitious and genius-destroying
education!
From the evident disposition of children to imitate all the actions of
grown persons, from their little scientific propensities to produce in
miniature what they see in magnitude, from the delight which they feel,
and the deep interest which they take in all their little works and
playful amusements, it is certain that nothing more is required to put
them in the channel of correct ideas than to give them such instruction,
and to bend their minds to such objects as shall at once employ, amuse,
and delight, and at the same time form a playful and healthful exercise
for them; whilst it is calculated to expand their minds in the knowledge
and comprehension of those objects which are above all things conducive
to the interests of society, and which relate to the progressive
improvement and advancing state of the Arts and Sciences.
The objects to which I allude, are chemical experiments, and experiments
in every other branch of Natural Philosophy: and a study of Natural
History by observation and examination of natural subjects. I need not
enumerate the various branches of Natural History, suffice it to say,
that I would have a system of education that should embrace the whole
successively; and here a wide field would be open for the conversion of
priests to professors in the various departments of this science; and
this science alone is so far infinite as to make the life of man a
continual system of education and research. Independent of the foregoing
sciences there are Geography, Astronomy, Mechanics, and all the lesser
branches which are commonly and necessarily taught to youth in the
present system of education. This I consider would be a natural and
proper system for the education of youth, and this system has all the
degrees which are as well adapted to the comprehension of infants or
children of three and four years old, as to the most mature age and
knowledge.
The beauty of scientific pursuits is, that there is always a novelty
in them--that discoveries in them will ever be infinite, and that the
further you proceed the more you see before you, and the more ardour
you feel in those pursuits. It is the best of all amusement and pastime,
because, it produces universal advantage and universal satisfaction,
whilst it neither fatigues the follower nor injures his neighbour. Other
amusements and pastimes are apt to occasion individual injury and even
misery, but this cannot. The sportsmen cannot hunt or shoot, without
damaging the cultivated property of others, and whilst in the pursuit
of his game his mind allows no obstacles to be just. With the Man of
Science the case is different, his amusements and experiments are made
within a narrow sphere, and the result is calculated to benefit all
without injury to any.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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