t the advice or criticism of civilians.
But I hold--and I am sure that you will agree with me--that if the
soldier is to be thus trusted by the nation, and left to himself to do
his own work his own way, he must be educated in all practical matters as
highly as the average of educated civilians. He must know all that they
know, and his own art beside. Just as a clergyman, being a man plus a
priest, is bound to be a man, and a good man, over and above his
priesthood, so is the soldier bound to be a civilian, and a
highly-educated civilian, plus his soldierly qualities and acquirements.

It seemed to me, therefore, that I might, without impertinence, ask you
to consider a branch of knowledge which is becoming yearly more and more
important in the eyes of well-educated civilians; of which, therefore,
the soldier ought at least to know something, in order to put him on a
par with the general intelligence of the nation. I do not say that he is
to devote much time to it, or to follow it up into specialities: but that
he ought to be well grounded in its principles and methods; that he ought
to be aware of its importance and its usefulness; that so, if he comes
into contact--as he will more and more--with scientific men, he may
understand them, respect them, befriend them, and be befriended by them
in turn; and how desirable this last result is, I shall tell you
hereafter.

There are those, I doubt not, among my audience who do not need the
advice which I shall presume to give to-night; who belong to that fast
increasing class among officers of whom I have often said--and I have
found scientific men cordially agree with me--that they are the most
modest and the most teachable of men. But even in their case there can
be no harm in going over deliberately a question of such importance; in
putting it, as it were, into shape; and insisting on arguments which may
perhaps not have occurred to some of them.

Let me, in the first place, reassure those--if any such there be--who may
suppose, from the title of my lecture, that I am only going to recommend
them to collect weeds and butterflies, "rats and mice, and such small
deer." Far from it. The honourable title of Natural History has, and
unwisely, been restricted too much of late years to the mere study of
plants and animals. I desire to restore the words to their original and
proper meaning--the History of Nature; that is, of all that is born, and
grows in time; in short, o