So generally does this prevail, that in chemical treatises the names
of substances are frequently given with a tail of synonymes. Numerous
words might be cited which are names for non-existences--mere
hypothetic groupings; and yet so rapidly are these increasing, that it
seems not impossible, in process of time, there will be more names for
things that are not than for things that are. If this work go on, the
scientific public must elect a censor whose fiat shall be final;
otherwise, as every small philosopher is encouraged or tolerated in
framing _ad libitum_ a nomenclature of his own, the inevitable effect
will be, that no man will be able to understand his brother, and a
confusion of tongues will ensue, to be likened only to that which
occasioned the memorable dispersion at Babel.
Many of the defects to which we have alluded in the course of this
paper, time alone can remedy. In spite of all drawbacks, the progress
of science has been vast and rapidly increasing; the very rapidity of
its progress brings with it difficulties. So many points, once
considered impossible, have been proved possible, that to some minds
the suggestion of impossibility seems an argument in favour of
possibility. Because steam-travelling was once laughed at as visionary,
aerial navigation is to be regarded as practicable--perhaps, indeed, it
_will_ be so, give but the time _proportionably_ requisite to master
its difficulties, as there was given to steam. What proportion this
should be we will not venture to predict. There can be little doubt
that the most effectual way to induce a more accurate public
discrimination of scientific efforts is to turn somewhat more in that
direction the current of national education. Prizes at the universities
for efficiency in the physics of light, heat, electricity, magnetism,
or chemistry, could, we conceive, do no harm. Why should not similar
honours be conferred on those students who advance the progress of an
infant science, as on those who work out with facility the formulæ of
an exact one; and why should not acquirements in either, rank equally
high with the critical knowledge of the _digamma_ or the _à priori_
philosophy of Aristotle? Is not Bacon's Novum Organon as much entitled
to be made a standard book for the schools as Aldrich's logic?
Venerating English universities, we approve not the inconsiderate
outcries against systematic and time-honoured educational discipline;
but it would increase our love for these seminaries of sound learning,
could we more frequently see such men as Davy emanate from Oxford,
instead of from the pneumatic institution of Bristol.
Provided science be kept separate from political excitement, we should
like to see an English Academy, constituted of men having fair claims
to scientific distinction, and not "deserving of that honour because
they are attached to science."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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