VI SCIENCE AND CULTURE 135 



freedom of thought which is at once the cause 

 and tlie consequence of intellectual progress. 



Hence I am disposed to think that, if Priestley 

 could be amongst us to-day, the occasion of our 

 meeting would afford him even greater pleasure 

 than the proceedings which celebrated the cen- 

 tenary of his chief discovery. The kindly heart 

 would be moved, the high sense of social duty 

 would be satisfied, by the spectacle of well-earned 

 wealth neither squandered in tawdry luxury and 

 vainglorious show, nor scattered with the careless 

 charity which blesses neither him that gives nor 

 him that takes, but expended in the execution of 

 a well-considered plan for the aid of present and 

 future generations of those who are willing to help 

 themselves. 



We shall all be of one mind thus far. But it 

 is needful to share Priestley's keen interest in 

 physical science; and to have learned, as he had 

 learned, the value of scientific training in fields 

 of inquiry apparently far remote from physical 

 science; in order to appreciate, as he would have 

 appreciated, the value of the noble gift which Sir 

 Josiah Mason has bestowed upon the inhabitants 

 of the Midland district. 



For us children of the nineteenth century, 

 however, the establishment of a college under the 

 conditions of Sir Josiah Mason's Trust, has a 

 significance apart from any which it could have 

 possessed a hundred years ago. It appears to be 

 69 



