15
intellect; and the wild geese who, at this season, are careering southwards, by compasses which never go wrong, have plainly greatly the advantage of us. All the suffering and death which are occasioned by our ignorance of physical laws, are dark stains upon our science, as well as griefs to humanity. From the moment that we quit the guidance of instinct, for that of interpreting, devising, and constructing intellect, we are bound to employ the last to the full. The deaths of thousands lie at the door of imperfect science; and, therefore, the necessity for Industrial Museums and Chairs like this.
Two observations further will complete this prolonged reference to the contrast between man and the lower animals, in the matter of industrialness.
The one is, that our individuality asserts itself for good and for evil, as that of the lower animals does not. The difference between the nature and extent of the endowments of two individuals of the same species of animals is very small, so that even were they able and disposed to exchange knowledge, neither would gain or lose by the barter. But the difference in endowment of any two men is always considerable, oftentimes great, and sometimes immeasurable. Accordingly, the amount of industrial labour performed by an aggregate of animals such as a hive of bees, is far more the sum (as distinguished from the mean) of the entire skill, activity, and industry of the whole bees, than the amount of labour of any section of men is. With us, the sum total of work is secured by a division of labour, including that of brain, as well as that of hand, where one man may furnish 95 per cent, of the intellect determining the work, and a thousand other men may divide the remaining 5 per cent, among them.
James Watt's Steam Engine, for example, John Dalton's Atomic Theory, George Stephenson's Railway Locomotive, and Christian Oersted's Electric Telegraph, furnished something like 99 per cent, of the thought and work, which have changed, in half a century, the condition of every mechanical manufacture, and of every chemical art; which have brought the ends of the earth together; have abridged beyond all former expectation, Space, and abbreviated as unexpectedly, Time.
We require, accordingly, perpetually to transfer knowledge from the wise to the unwise; from the more wise to the less wise; and such a Chair as this, with its associated Museum, is what, in com-
