President's address

/

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

[^Eeprinted from the Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the
Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art. 1873.]

Befoee entering upon the subject of my address, I am sure
I shall be pardoned for referring to the tragical end of one
who was the life and soul of this Association, as well as
of many good and interesting works in this county. It is
through his invitation, indeed, that I am here to-day, and
sorely do I miss his welcome and counsel. None saw " the
vain struggle, the parting agony " of that chill, autumn day,
but many will long remember how the little carriage was
sadly led back to the desolate parsonage, no longer to be the
home of the bereaved family. He has been taken from us
by that mysterious Providence which for some wise purpose
cuts off so many in their career of usefulness, leaving others
who might, humanly speaking, have been much better spared^

" They are vanished from their place —

Let their homes and hearths make moan ;
But the rolling waters leave no trace
Of pang or conflict gone."

Varied as were Mr. Kirwan's attainments, great as was his
knowledge, what groping in the dark must it all appear to
him now, in the full light of truth. As the poet says :

" Death leads to the highest knowledge,
And being of all things the sole thing certain,
At least leads to the surest science."

I find myself with the task set before me of pronouncing
what may be called in classical phrase a trilogy on the three
great pursuits which have so long exercised enormous influ-
ence, whether for good or for ill, upon the human race. I feel
deeply my incompetence to do justice to my subject, having
unfortunately come into the world before it was the fashion
to give so wide a scope to the education of the youthful mind.
I need scarcely say that during the twelve or thirteen years
passed at school and college. Science meant Plato and
Aristotle; Literature was confined to the dead languages;
while Art was represented, 1 am afraid, by cartoons which

2 THE KT, HON. S. CAVE'S PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

did not receive such encouragement from the authorities as
would induce the artist to develop into a Kaffaelle. I
mention this in order to bespeak the indulgence of the
Association, because a subsequent active life, many years of
which have now been occupied in passing laws M'hich require
frequent amendment, or in endeavouring to prevent the
passage of those which no amendment can improve, has not
enabled me to make up for lost time. Any observations,
therefore, which I can offer must be of the most ordinary
and superficial character, the crude jottings of a busy man.

Science stands first on your title page. I do not quarrel
with the precedence ; but does not this indicate the change
wrought by the last few years ? When art and literature had
already grown grey, science was still a little child. Was it
not in the era of Milton and Vandyke that the inventor of
a steam engine was consigned to a lunatic asylum for his
pains ?

But what is science ? Science is organized knowledge, and
we mean by it that which is exact in opposition to that which
is speculative. Whether abstract or physical, it insists upon
proof, and does not admit of faith. It believes nothing it
does not understand and cannot prove. Hence science has
unfortunately been ranged in antagonism to religion, and a
warfare has raged, disastrous to both, which some day per-
haps may be concluded by peace, and even alliance. For if
certain truths we accept cannot be known without revelation,
then what is rejected because contradicted by science ought
probably to be received also, the contradiction being only
apparent, and the agreement of the two being a matter of
certainty, requiring only patience. In our present state w^e
must be content to take much for granted. I once lieard a
very eminent surgeon say, " We know by experience that
certain results ordinarily follow certain treatment ; but when
we attempt to theorize upon this, we find our theories so
constantly upset by fresh cases, that I for one have left off
trying to give reasons for many of the effects produced."

" Wait, nor against the half-learned lesson fiet,
Nor chide at old belief as if it erred,
Because thou canst not reconcile as yet
The worker and the word."

An old divine said well, "We have much enquiry after
knowledge in these latter times. The sons of Adam are now
as busy as ever himself was about the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, shaking the boughs of it, and scrambling for
the fruit." Those who are weak and wavering, and those

^ UIUC

THE RT. HON. S. CAVES PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3

who have an interest in maintaining things as they are, natu-
rally view the bold attacks of scientific men on their fortress
with alarm. They see the plaster with which the misplaced
laboiir of generations has coated the walls crumble under
the fire of the enemy, without perceiving that, when this is
swept away, but little impression will have been made on the
solid structure. Galilfeo was imprisoned, not because the
authorities of the Inquisition cared whether the sun or the
earth moved, but because they dreaded the spirit of enquiry.
The opinion, however, is gaining ground that God's truth
cannot suffer by the extension of man's truth. We may,
indeed, enquire diligently what is the truth ; but it argues a
very weak faith to suppress enquiry because it may militate
against what we may have been in the habit of regarding
as the truth. The Eoman Proconsul, when told that the
Christians were destroying a temple, merely replied, " Let
the gods defend themselves." There was deep meaning in
the answer. I for one have no fear of the result ; but much
harm may be done by misguided zeal. The assailants are
men of world-wide reputation, giants in intellect, and their
arguments cannot be confuted by mere generalities or plati-
tudes. Those who enter the lists should be well acquainted
with the turns and changes of the contest, and the M'ay in
which new ground has been taken from time to time ; and
they should especially be well versed in the language of the
books under review. Even educated Hindoos have lately
been accusing our divines of condemning their sacred books
without being able to read them. Nothing is easier than to
pour out indignation against setters forth of strange doctrines,
and to demolish them amidst the cheers of an unanimous
meeting ; but weapons of a far different temper and calibre
are required in a contest with such antagonists. It was once
said at a trial, " I tliought the defendant's case unassailable
till I heard his counsel's speech."

So much for the polemical literature of science. But
science is the handmaid of art; and in those branches of art
which may be termed useful or mechanical, what strides have
been made since Archimedes invented the lever, and, with
that confidence which has descended to his successors, de-
clared that he would move the world. The// have been moving
the world ever since. Nothing seems too hard or too daring
for our engineers. We often hear in their evidence before
parliamentary committees that nothing is impossible; it is
only a question of expense. And when we contemplate
what has been done within our own recollection, we must

4 THE RT. HON. S. CAVES PKESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

admit that there is justification for their boldest plans. I
once heard the late Lord Derby say that he was on the
committee which threw out the first railway bill, on the
ground that a speed of more than twelve miles an hour
would be dangerous to human life. Lord Derby was still a
young man when Brunei travelled from Bristol to London,
one hundred and twenty miles, considerably within two
hours ! We have put a girdle of telegraphic wire round the
world. A toast has been given from London to Calcutta, and
the reply received, within the space of an ordinary banquet.
Going westward, our statesmen's speeches are read in New
York apparently before they are delivered in London. We
build our war ships of enormous masses of iron, and arm theiu
with jiuus, each one more formidable than a broadside of the
last generation. Vessels have been invented which, like fish,
cans wim either upon or below the surface. Bridges, no longer
supported on arches or by chains, are level iron roads, striding
across broad rivers and arms of the sea. Eailway trains climb
a mountain seven thousand feet high, while others run seven
miles through its centre ; and we are threatened this summer
with a friendly invasion from America by balloon. The pre-
dictions of Darwin in the Botanic Garden were deemed in
his day as extravagant as his grandson's theories are by most
people now. But time has justified them. Writing many
years before steam vessels, railways, or torpedo ships, he says :

" Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car ;
Or, on wide waving wings expanded, bear
The flying chariots through the fields of air. —
Taught by the sage, lo ! Britain's sons shall guide
Hugh sea-balloons beneath the tossing tide."

These are great achievements ; but machinery is like the
trunk of an elephant, which can not only iiproot a tree, but
pick up a pin. The art of saving labour by mechanical con-
trivances is yet in its infancy. It will be a vast addition to
human happiness, a great blessing to employers and employed,
when the labour which is only worth starving wages shall be
everywhere performed by machinery.

Architecture forms a connecting link between the mechani-
cal and the tine arts. Some waiT has suajoested that we shall
have no success in architecture till we have hanged an archi-
tect ; and, indeed, we ha\e little to boast of in these degenerate
days. Our churches built during the last twenty-five years
are doubtless superior to those of the preceding century, but
•simply because we have reverted to earlier models. In London,

THE RT. HON. S. CAVE'S PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 5

Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge are almost the only civil
structures which excite the admiration of foreigners. Some
of the clubs are worthy of notice, especially for the excellence
of their arrangements, in all respects except ventilation, an
appliance yet to be discovered in northern latitudes. The
House of Parliament is a gigantic and most costly failure.
It seems to have been designed with little regard to the pur-
pose it was to serve. The arrangements for enabling even
members of the Government to transact that large part of the
business of the country w'hich is carried on by means of per-
sonal interviews are still far inferior to those of any House of
Assembly I have ever seen, though improvements have been
made by frequent alterations. In private houses there has
been a marked advance in convenience, and in sanitary ap-
pliances. In towns we no longer bury our basements in
Cimmerian darkness, nor erect dead walls before our attics.
In the country we do not so generally destroy the health and
light of our offices and stables by planting masses of shrubs
close to the windows. Common sense has banished spurious
taste. Genuineness and reality are at length driving out sham
and stucco. We are still, however, inclined to copy defects
which were caused by poverty of material in early styles ; to
narrow our windows, though we have glass in abundance; and
to give our roofs an excessive pitch, though no longer obliged
to load them with enormous weights. At the same time we
have ventured on daring innovations by land, as well as in
naval architecture, and the mode in which glass and iron were
employed in the Exhibition of 1851 has been widely copied.

In arcliitecture, and still more in the tine arts, though there
are certain canons which have always been recognized, yet
taste has varied from age to age under the guidance generally
of some one who has either from his power of explaining and
enforcing his views, from his position, or some other cause, been
looked up to as an authority. Pnit whereas in science we boast
of our superiority to those who have preceded us, having the
advantage of their accunmlated stores of experience, the case
is different in regard to literature and the fine arts. In these
excellence springs forth, like ^linerva, full-grown, and espe-
cially during the youth of the world. Poetry is the earliest
language of a race, and we are, I think, justified in saying that
nations, like individuals, may write themselves out. Certainly
in the earlier authors we find more vigorous and condensed
thought, more expressions that have become, as it were, cur-
rent coin, than in those of later date. It must, however, be
admitted that stirring'-'events and organic changes, social or

6 THE KT. HON. S. CAVE'S PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

political, may give new subject-matter and fresh impetus to
contemporary literature. The treasures of ancient Greece in
the galleries of Eome and Florence excite the admiration and
despair of modern sculptors. Excavations in Pompeii and
elsewhere have proved that while the art of painting was not
inferior, the secret of preserving paintings was understood in
a still more remarkable manner. In the museum of Cortona
is a female head in the highest style of art. It was dug up
by a peasant from the bottom of a ditch where it had proba-
bly lain for fifteen hundred years, was by him used as a
shutter, and exposed to the sun by day and the frost by night,
and yet appears now as perfect as when fresh from the painter's
hand. It is on slate, and has been by some unknown process
rendered practically indestructible.

Those who presume to dogmatize on painting or sculpture
are on very delicate ground. We all remember the secret
for acquiring the reputation of a cognoscento in tlie Vicar of
Wakefield, which " consisted in a strict adherence to two rules,
the one always to observe the picture might have been better
if the painter had taken more pains, and the other to praise
the works of Pietro Perugino." The price which collections
of acknowledged excellence command proves the value set
upon the judgment of others by persons who mistrust their
own. How few can see any merit in a work without a cha-
racter is shown by the case of Lord Suffolk's stolen pictures,
and the famous Guido of San Bartolonieo in Bologna, which
were long exposed, and eventually sold for a trifle in Wardour
Street, no one having been attracted, except those by whom
the pictures were recognized. So again, in the well-known
instance of the buried statue of Bacchus, praise which had
been withheld from the work of Michael Angelo, was lavishly
bestowed by the connoisseurs of Florence upon the supposed
antique. The Greeks and Eomans seem scarcely to have
appreciated scenery for its own sake, though the similes of
Homer, the pastorals of Theocritus, passages like the apos-
trophe to the Clouds \\\ Aristophanes, the description of rural
retreats in Horace, show that they were not unobservant of
nature. Where cities are few, and the country wild and
uncultivated, full of danger and hardship to the wayfarer,
and perhaps peopled by superstition with malignant beings,
the lonely settler looks with repugnance upon the "savage
mountain," the " brown horror of the wood." Hence the best
descriptions of scenery have been written by dwellers in
cities. On the other hand, when population increases, when
towns swallow up green fields, and the sea coast becomes

THE RT. HON. S. CAVES PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 7

almost a continuous terrace, we cling to wliat remains of rural
scenery. Our writers enlarge upon it in prose and verse, and
our painters transfer to their canvas the haylield, the sandy
nook, the quiet corner of the wood. It would be invidious
to mention names, but we must all agree that descriptions of
country in prose and verse, as well as delineations of country
in oils and water-colours, in our own day and our own land,
will bear comparison with those of any nation or of any age.
There is one characteristic which specially marks the modern
English school of painting, namely, extreme accuracy. We
know that some artists make it a point of conscience to leave
nothing to memory, to fill in every line and every tint from
nature, and we value them accordingly. Perhaps we owe
this in part to photography, which is a terrible witness against
a slovenly or too imaginative artist, as far as outline is con-
cerned, and partly to the prse-Raffaelite school, which has
carried on a successful warfare against conventionality. As
in reforms of other kinds, the reformers have probably gone
too far, justice without mercy is not desirable even in a
portrait. Some one has said nothing is so false as a fact, and
it is surely a mistake to paint as if man had "a microscopic
eye," and could distinguish "each particular hair" upon a
caterpillar several yards off. As an exact illustration of my
meaning, I may instance a very clever picture in the Royal
Academy some years ago. Tt was a small patch of wheatfield.
The spiky ears, blue cornflowers, and twining convolvuli, the
shiny beetles, and glittering dewdrops, were painted with
marvellous accuracy and minuteness. And then the artist,
apparently struck with the conviction that no mortal eye
could have taken it all in, gave his picture the "grace of con-
gruity" by placing the scene in Brobdignag, with Gulliver
gazing upon the gigantic growth from a furrow as high as
his shoulders. As neither art nor literature are ashamed of
the homely joys and sorrows of daily life, so are they more
and more appreciated by the general public. No longer has
the artist or author to languish in the ante-rooms of the great.
The great come to him, and the small too, and the latter are
from their numbers no contemptible patrons ; but as in former
times the pen and pencil were too often tiie humble servants
of powerful vice, and even the basis of historj^ was less fact
than faction, so in these latter days there is danger of pander-
ing not to the single patron, but to the multitude. The leading
press of this country bears a deservedly high character. Its
columns are full of most valuable matter, and I believe its
coaductors honestly endeavour to instruct as well as to attract

8 THE HT. HON. S. CAVE'S PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

their readers. But it is not universally so. The editor of au
American paper was once taken to task on account of a
violent anti-English article, and he was asked whether those
were his real sentiments. "No," replied he, "but my paper
costs a cent. I leave you to calculate how many subscribers
I must have to enable me to live. If I don't print what they
like, they wont buy the paper."

"We must not be ungrateful to periodical literature, which
adds so much to our enjoyment, and has given a first start to
so many able writers ; but it somewhat encourages the ten-
dency to write for the present, and not for all time. The
difference between the two classes is well explained by Alfred
de Vigny, in Cinq Mars : " Les uns etaient des hommes obscurs,
fort illustres a present. Les autres des honmies illustres, fort
obscurs pour nous-posterite."

It has been said that a well known poet suffered agonies of
self-reproach from the fear that even his remote descendants
might be injured by reading his works. And truly some of
our sensational novelists have much to answer for. Those I
mean whose heroes possess the proverbial qualifications for
mundane happiness, a good digestion, and no conscience.
Guardsmen of a type, we may believe, little known in the
Household Brigade, who "spare no man in their auger and
no woman in their licentiousness;" and, after a career of un-
mitigated villainy, settle down in patriarchal peace and
respectability. It is no light thing to invest such characters
with the halo of romance. We are but too inclined to sym-
pathize with reckless lawlessness. Has not some one said
that the most interesting character in Paradise Lost is Satan ?
But there are lower depths still. Scandalous publications,
striking at law and order through religion, of which the
Moderator of the General Assembly of Scotland has lately
spoken with becoming indignation. He calls them "infidel
and impure literature." But I will not so degrade the name.
They bear the same relation to literature that poison does to
food, and those who disseminate them are even worse than the
wretches who carried about infected straw for the purpose of
spreading the cattle-plague.

To revert for one moment to the fine arts. Is there not some
danger that the patronage of the million may, while increasing
the quantity, somewhat lower the quality? Will not the
composer produce "tunes which jingle well"? and the artist
paint down to art union prizes ? Moreover there is that in
the relations between artists and certain London dealers, to
which I need only allude, but which, if not promptly stamped

THE RT. HON. S. CAVE'S PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 9

out, will do more to destroy the self-respect aud independence
of the profession than all the patrons of the Georgian era.

The effect of more extended appreciation upon art and
literature brings us to the effect of science, literature, and art
upon the million. A man with his bread to earn must neces-
sarily regard the occupation of his life from an utilitarian
point of view. Time has to him an actual money value.
Now, in my humble opinion, too much has been said about
certain studies improving and strengthening the mind rather
than others. Surely this depends more upon the mode of
teaching than upon the subject taught. Picking up a modein
language by ear does not exercise the mental powers like the
careful study of a dead language. But why should not the
one be as carefully taught as the other ? I do not believe in
the " conflict of studies " in this sense. Idiots may possess
great aptitude for calculation and for music ; but it does not
follow that the' study of mathematics or music may not
strengthen the powers even of a powerful mind. So the
various arts and sciences, applicable to industry, may be
taught in a manner to develop the faculties. " Life," as
Sydney Smith says, " has been distressingly abridged since
the flood." And if the mind can be nourished by the same
food with which the body is fed, what an economy is effected!
A blacksmith requires a strong arm. Eowing strengthens the
arm ; but it would be a palpable fallacy to say, therefore, a
blacksmith should be taught to row instead of to wield the
hammer. And though an educated man may have the power
of learning something for which people will pay sooner than
if his mind had lain entirely fallow, yet there is a risk that
the steed may starve while the grass is growing. A French
periodical, the EcJio Agricole, complaining of the useless
system of schools, asks "why the mind should be led through
delusive labyrinths instead of being drawn to the observa-
tion of natural phenomena, whence it would bring to other
branches of knowledge the spirit of methodical order, which
it would have been obliged to employ in the study of nature.
There should be introduced," continues the writer, " into pri-
mary schools the elementary teaching qf natural science applied
to what children see daily in the country." Such a system as
this, by which the foundation would be laid for technical
education, might well be ado[)ted in the elementary schools
of this country, which keep too much to the old groove,
exercising the memory instead of the mind, and producing
conceited prigs, who despise the honest calling of their
parents, and are unfit for any othej.

10 riii'; ]iT. HON. s. cave's i'RESidential address.

It is refreshing to turn to the last Eeport of the Science and
Art Department, just issued, whicli I commend to the study
of all who take an interest in real education as distinguished
from mere cram. Having already exceeded my limit, 1 can do
no more than glance at the various subjects in which examina-
tions have been held, merely premising that besides grants from
Government there are prizes for practical work founded by
private benefactors, among whom I may mention Sir Joseph
Whitworth, of Manchester, and the Plasterers' Company, who
have revived the original intention of the great city guilds,
namely, the improvement of tlie trades witii which they are
connected. In the science branch pajjcrs have been worked
in geometry, in the construction of machines, buildings, and
ships ; in mathematics and mechanics, in acoustics, on light,
heat, magnetism, and electricity ; in chemistry, geology,
mining, mineralogy, and metallurgy ; in zoology, economic
botany, in navigation, on steam, and in physical geo.^raphy.
In the art branch aid is given to drawing in elementary and
night schools, " where specially directed to the improvement
of the perceptive powers of the children." Grants are also
made to more advanced schools, in which the student pursues
the technical study of art in the direction required by his
occupation. In both branches assistance is given towards
the training of competent teachers. I am glad to say that
the payment of fees is considered essential to the maintenance
of a proper system of insti-uction. People I'arely value what
they get for nothing, and the artizau classes are, generally
speaking, well able to pay for the improvement of themselves
and of their children.

We are at this moment in a transition state: old things are
passing away, all things are becoming new. The skilled
artizan can now obtain a far larger income than at any former
]»erio(l. Like other people who have come suddenly into for-
tunes, he sometimes makes a queer use of it. The immense
increase in the spirit duties, among other things, shows that
much of this wealth is squandered in sensual and brutalizing
pleasures ; but let us not forget that such were the pleasures
of classes much above Jrtiim less than a century ago. And
what has to a great degree weaned those classes from such
])leasures ? Surely the superior attraction of those pursuits
for the advancement of which this Association was formed.
A nation cannot be civilized by Act of Parliament any more
than it can be dragooned into religion. Both plans have been
tried, and both have failed. P>ut as the streamlets pierce our
red cliffs, and l)ring them down piecemeal year after year, so

THE RT. HON. S. CAVE's PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 11

will the streams of knowledge gradually and silently make
their way through the stnbhorn barrier of ignorance and vice.
The report of the Science and Art department speaks of a
sensible improvement in the work, and of increasing numbers
of students. True, they are as yet mere drops, but they may
be the first drops of a shower. Even if generations should
pass before the masses are civilized, as generations have
passed in the case of those above them, what are a few genera-
tions in the life of a nation, when we consider the end to be
attained ? We must have patience, and not, as is our habit
in these restless times, be perpetually digging up our seed, in
order to see whether it is growing. We can but plant and
water for a little while before we pass away, but if we do our
part we shall pass away in the full assurance that our suc-
cessors will reap the fruit of the tree we have planted.

'J^y^