od deal lost, because
scientific men are too fond or too vain of their systems, and waste the
student's time in endeavouring to give him large views, and make him
perceive interesting connections of facts; when there is not one
student, no, nor one man, in a thousand, who can feel the beauty of a
system, or even take it clearly into his head; but nearly all men can
understand, and most will be interested in, the facts which bear on
daily life. Botanists have discovered some wonderful connection between
nettles and figs, which a cowboy who will never see a ripe fig in his
life need not be at all troubled about; but it will be interesting to
him to know what effect nettles have on hay, and what taste they will
give to porridge; and it will give him nearly a new life if he can be
got but once, in a spring time, to look well at the beautiful circlet of
white nettle blossom, and work out with his schoolmaster the curves of
its petals, and the way it is set on its central mast. So, the principle
of chemical equivalents, beautiful as it is, matters far less to a
peasant boy, and even to most sons of gentlemen, than their knowing how
to find whether the water is wholesome in the back-kitchen cistern, or
whether the seven-acre field wants sand or chalk.

129. Having, then, directed the studies of our youth so as to make them
practically serviceable men at the time of their entrance into life,
that entrance should always be ready for them in cases where their
private circumstances present no opening. There ought to be government
establishments for every trade, in which all youths who desired it
should be received as apprentices on their leaving school; and men
thrown out of work received at all times. At these government
manufactories the discipline should be strict, and the wages steady, not
varying at all in proportion to the demand for the article, but only in
proportion to the price of food; the commodities produced being laid up
in store to meet sudden demands, and sudden fluctuations in prices
prevented:--that gradual and necessary fluctuation only being allowed
which is properly consequent on larger or more limited supply of raw
material and other natural causes. When there was a visible tendency to
produce a glut of any commodity, that tendency should be checked by
directing the youth at the government schools into other trades; and the
yearly surplus of commodities should be the principal means of
government provisions