more potent agents to execute our purposes. At this point the
steam-engine appears. These are still new things; it is not long
since we struck into the scientific methods which have produced these
results. We cannot for an instant regard them as the final
achievements of Science, but rather as an earnest of what she is yet
to do. They mark our first great advances upon the dominion of
Nature. Animal strength fails, but here are the forces which hold the
world together, and the instincts and successes of Man assure him that
these forces are his when he is wise enough to command them.

As an instrument of intellectual culture, the study of Physics is
profitable to all: as bearing upon special functions, its value,
though not so great, is still more tangible. Why, for example, should
Members of Parliament be ignorant of the subjects concerning which
they are called upon to legislate? In this land of practical physics,
why should they be unable to form an independent opinion upon a
physical question? Why should the member of a parliamentary committee
be left at the mercy of interested disputants when a scientific
question is discussed, until he deems the nap a blessing which rescues
him from the bewilderments of the committee-room? The education which
does not supply the want here referred to, fails in its duty to
England. With regard to our working people, in the ordinary sense of
the term working, the study of Physics would, I imagine, be
profitable, not only as a means of intellectual culture, but also as a
moral influence to woo them from pursuits which now degrade them. A
man's reformation oftener depends upon the indirect, than upon the
direct action of the will. The will must be exerted in the choice of
employment which shall break the force of temptation by erecting a
barrier against it. The drunkard, for example, is in a perilous
condition if he content himself merely with saying, or swearing, that
he will avoid strong drink. His thoughts, if not attracted by another
force, will revert to the public-house, and to rescue him permanently
from this, you must give him an equivalent.

By investing the objects of hourly intercourse with an interest which
prompts reflection, new enjoyments would be opened to the working man,
and every one of these would be a point of force to protect him
against temptation. Besides this, our factories and our foundries
present an extensive field of observation, and were th