ess of the human family. There is a growing
demand for men versed in electrical science, who can take charge of
establishments for the transmission of power. Civil and mechanical
engineers are needed, who can wisely and economically construct our
bridges and highways of commerce, and who can apply the highest
scientific skill to all the constructive enterprises of the country.

"The Swiss and Germans aver," says Matthew Arnold, "if you question
them as to the benefit they have received from their _realschulen_ and
_polytechnicums_, that in every part of the world their men of
business, trained in these schools, are beating the English when they
meet on equal terms as to capital, and that where English capital, as
so often happens, is superior, the advantage of the Swiss or German in
instruction tends more and more to balance this superiority. I was
lately saying to one of the first mathematicians in England, who has
been a distinguished senior wrangler at Cambridge and a practical
mathematician besides, that in one department, at any rate--that of
mechanics and engineering,--we seemed, in spite of the absence of
special schools, good instruction, and the idea of science, to get on
wonderfully well. 'On the contrary,' said he, 'we get on wonderfully
ill. Our engineers have no real scientific instruction, and we let
them learn their business at our expense by the rule of thumb, but it
is a ruinous system of blunder and plunder. A man without a requisite
scientific knowledge undertakes to build a difficult bridge; he builds
three which tumble down, and so learns how to build a fourth which
stands, but somebody pays for the three failures. In France or
Switzerland he would not have been suffered to build his first bridge
until he had satisfied competent persons that he knew how to build it,
because abroad they cannot afford our extravagance.'"

We find, likewise, that our industries are demanding men trained in
applied chemistry. The application of the principles of chemical
philosophy to manufacturing steel, chemical fertilizers, artificial
preparation of articles of food, bleaching, dyeing, and printing of
cloths, offers a very inviting field of study. We might multiply
instances, but enough has been said to suggest to our minds the rich
possibilities before educated young men and women. We are only on the
edge of the future of applied science.

We need, also, to carry our culture and training into business
careers. Bu