Culture demanded by modern life Author:Edward Livingston Youmans Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. A LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. BY JOHN TYNDALL, LL.D., F.R.S, ON THE STUDY... more » OF PHYSICS. There is a word in the title of this Lecture which does not clearly convey the idea by which I shall be guided in its delivery. I hold in my hand a soiled proof of the syllabus of the present course, and the title of the present Lecture is there stated to be " On the Importance of the Study of Physics as a Means of Education." The corrected proof, however, contains the following title: —" On the Importance of the Study of Physics as a Branch of Education." Small as this editorial alteration may seem, the two words appear to me to suggest two radically distinct modes of viewing the subject before us. The term Education is sometimes applied to a single faculty or organ, and if we know wherein the education of a single organ or faculty consists, this knowledge will enable us to form a clearer notion regarding the education of the sum of all the faculties, or of the mind. When, for example, we speak of the education of the voice, what do we mean ? There are certain membranes at the top of the windpipe which are capable of being thrown into vibration by the air forced between them from the lungs, and thus caused to produce sound. These membranes are, to some extent, under the control of the will: it is found that they canbe so modified by exercise as to produce notes of a clearer and more melodious character, and this exercise we call the education of the voice. We may choose for our exercise a new song or an old song, a festive song or a solemn chant; and, the education of the voice being the object we have in view, the songs may be regarded as the means by which this education is accomplished. I think this exp...« less