xii.] VALUE OF SCIENCE CLASSES. 309 



has done, and each share in the learning of all ; for as 

 iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpens the face of his 

 friend, I have nothing to say against debating societies : 

 perhaps it was my own fault that whenever I belonged 

 to one as a young man, I found them inclined to make 

 me conceited, dictatorial, hasty in my judgments, 

 trying to state a case before I had investigated it, to 

 teach others before I had taught myself, to make a fine 

 speech, not to find out the truth; till in, I think, a 

 wise moment for me, I vowed at twenty never to set 

 foot in one again, and kept my vow. Be that as it 

 may, I wish that side by side with the debating society, 

 I could see young men joining in natural history 

 societies ; going out in company on pleasant evenings 

 to search together after the hidden treasures of God's 

 world, and read the great green book which lies open 

 alike to peasant and to peer ; and then meeting, say 

 once a week, to debate, not of opinions but of facts ; 

 to show each what they had found, to classify and 

 explain, to learn and to wonder together. In such a 

 class many appliances would be possible. A micro- 

 scope, for instance, or chemical apparatus, might belong 

 to the society, which each individual by himself would 

 not be able to afford ; while as for books books on 

 these subjects are now published at a marvellous 

 cheapness, which puts them within the reach of every 

 one, and of an excellence which twenty years ago was 

 impossible. Any working man in this town might 

 now, especially in a class, consult scientific books, for 

 which I, as a lad, twenty years ago, was sighing in 

 vain ; nay, many of which, twenty years ago, the 

 richest nobleman could not have purchased; for the 

 simple reason, that, dear or cheap, they did ijot exist. 



