Power will pass, more and more, into the hands of Scientific Men

It is infinitely well worth the mother’s while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather, to cherish in them, the love of investigation.  “I say it deliberately,” says Kingsley, “as student of society and of history:  power will pass more and more . . . into the hands of scientific men. …  They will rule, and they will act – cautiously, we may hope, and modestly, and charitably – because in learning true knowledge they will have learnt also their own ignorance, and the vastness, the complexity, the mystery of Nature.  But they will be able to rule, they will be able to act, because they have taken the trouble to learn the facts and the laws of Nature.”[1]