If the term education may be understood in so large a sense as to include all that belongs to the improvement of the mind, either by the acquisition of the knowledge of others or by increase of it through its own exertions, we learn by them what is the kind of education science offers to man. It teaches us to be neglectful of nothing – not to despise the small beginnings, for they precede of necessity all great things in the knowledge of science, either pure or applied.