16 TOWN GEOLOGY. 



that free habit of mind as the Study of Natural 

 Science. 



Equality, too: whatever equality may or may not be 

 just,, or possible; this at least, is just, and I hope pos- 

 sible; that every man, every child, of every rank, should 

 have an equal chance of education ; an equal chance of 

 developing all that is in him by nature ; an equal chance 

 of acquiring a fair knowledge of those facts of the 

 universe which specially concern him; and of having 

 his reason trained to judge of them. I say, whatever 

 equal rights men may or may not have, they have this 

 right. Let every boy, every girl, have an equal and 

 sound education. If I had my way, I would give the 

 same education to the child of the collier and to the 

 child of a peer. I would see that they were taught the 

 same things, and by the same method. Let them all 

 begin alike, say I. They will be handicapped heavily 

 enough as they go on in life, without our handicapping 

 them in their first race. Whatever stable they come 

 out of, whatever promise they show, let them all train 

 alike, and start fair, and let the best colt win. 



Well : but there is a branch of education in which, 

 even now, the poor man can compete fairly against the 

 rich ; and that is, Natural Science. In the first place, 

 the rich, blind to their own interest, have neglected it 

 hitherto in their schools; so that they have not the start 

 of the poor man on that subject which they have on 

 many. In the next place, Natural Science is a subject 

 which a man cannot learn by paying for teachers. He 

 must teach it himself, by patient observation, by patient 

 common sense. And if the poor man is not the rich 

 man's equal in those qualities, it must be his own fault, 

 not his purse's. Many shops have I seen about the 



