Edmund Gurney, author of "The
power of Sound," 1880.) They seem to me very clever, though obscurely
written; and I agree with almost everything he says, except with some
passages which appear to imply that no experiments should be tried
unless some immediate good can be predicted, and this is a gigantic
mistake contradicted by the whole history of science.

P.S.--That is a curious fact about babies. I remember hearing on good
authority that very young babies when moved are apt to clutch hold of
anything, and I thought of your explanation; but your case during sleep
is a much more interesting one. Very many thanks for the book, which I
much wanted to see; it shall be sent back to-day, as from you, to the
Society.

2.XII.II. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS, 1867-1882.

LETTER 774. TO CANON FARRAR.

(774/1. The lecture which forms the subject of this letter was one
delivered by Canon Farrar at the Royal Institution, "On Some Defects in
Public School Education.")

Down, March 5th, 1867.

I am very much obliged for your kind present of your lecture. We have
read it aloud with the greatest interest, and I agree to every word. I
admire your candour and wonderful freedom from prejudice; for I feel an
inward conviction that if I had been a great classical scholar I should
never have been able to have judged fairly on the subject. As it is, I
am one of the root and branch men, and would leave classics to be learnt
by those alone who have sufficient zeal and the high taste requisite
for their appreciation. You have indeed done a great public service in
speaking out so boldly. Scientific men might rail forever, and it would
only be said that they railed at what they did not understand. I was
at school at Shrewsbury under a great scholar, Dr. Butler; I
learnt absolutely nothing, except by amusing myself by reading and
experimenting in chemistry. Dr. Butler somehow found this out, and
publicly sneered at me before the whole school for such gross waste of
time; I remember he called me a Pococurante (774/2. Told in "Life and
Letters," I., page 35.), which, not understanding, I thought was a
dreadful name. I wish you had shown in your lecture how science could
practically be taught in a great school; I have often heard it objected
that this could not be done, and I never knew what to say in answer.

I heartily hope that you may live to see your zeal and labour produce
good fruit.

LETTER 775. TO HERBERT SPENCER. Down, December 9