neously and in concert, could probably avail to change materially the system which at present exists. Whether it is owing to the faults of this system, or to some deeper lying cause, it is a fact which cannot be controverted, that our colleges are gradually losing ground in the public estimation. Though the creation of new ones is an everyday occurrence, the ratio to the entire population of the aggregate annual number of their graduates is steadily, though slowly, diminishing. In England, also, a similar change seems to be simultaneously going on. Conclusive proof of this is presented by Mr. Atkinson, in his able address before the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and among his citations is the remarkable testimony of Lord Lyndhurst, who expressed in Parliament, in 1855, the opinion that the universities had evidently a far weaker hold upon the public feeling of the country than they had possessed at no very distant previous period. "When I first entered public life," said he, "I found in the other House of Parliament that a majority of the members of that assembly had been educated at one or the other of the universities. Now, however, as I understand, not more than one-sixth, or, at most, one-fifth of the representatives of the people have been educated at either of those great institutions."

I cannot but regard these results as owing, in some degree, to the faults of the preparatory system in both countries; faults which the subsequent teaching in the colleges does not and cannot correct, and which entail educational deficiencies-deficiencies of practical knowledge on subjects held in the highest esteem by the public-upon all their graduates.

If we

take

up the reports of the regents of the university of this State, we shall see that in every academy un

der their control, without exception I believe, instruction is given on all those subjects which I have named as proper to be placed upon the list of preparatory studies. These subjects are not taught to those who are in process of preparation for college in those schools. They are undoubtedly taught to others no more advanced in age than they. When the public see these things, how is it possible that they should fail occasionally to draw unfavorable comparisons? How is it possible that they should not sometimes imagine that perhaps the education which a youth may acquire in the academy may better fit him for success in life, than all that can be done for him by a system which carries him professedly a great deal higher, yet lays its first foundation in a manner of which common sense fails to discover the wisdom?

Permit me, finally, to remark that I have not submitted these observations with any expectation that they will affect the action of this Convocation. If the views which I have expressed have any foundation in reason, I am aware that they too widely differ from those which are generally entertained, to justify me in anticipating that they will be immediately approved. If they serve to awaken attention to the subject, and lead to its more deliberate examination, all the end which I have proposed to myself in presenting them will have been answered.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS IN

PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, IN MUNICH, 25TH JULY, 1866.

BY

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG.