MATTER AND FORCE 59 



It is, moreover, worthy of remark that the lectures are 

 but rarely of a character which could help the working 

 man in his daily pursuits. The information acquired is 

 hardly ever of a nature which admits of being turned 

 into money. It is, therefore, a pure desire for knowl- 

 edge, as a thing good in itself, and without regard to its 

 practical application, which animates the hearers of these 

 lectures. 



It is also my privilege to lecture to another audience 

 in London, composed in part of the aristocracy of rank, 

 while the audience just referred to is composed wholly of 

 the aristocracy of labor. As regards attention and court- 

 esy to the lecturer, neither of these audiences has any- 

 thing to learn of the other; neither can claim superiority 

 over the other. It would not, perhaps, be quite correct 

 to take those persons who flock to the School of Mines 

 as average samples of their class; they are probably 

 picked men the aristocracy of labor, as I have just 

 called them. At all events, their conduct demonstrates 

 that the essential qualities of what we in England under- 

 stand by a gentleman are confined to no class; and they 

 have often raised in my mind the wish that the gentle- 

 men of all classes, artisans as well as lords, could, by 

 some process of selection, be sifted from the general mass 

 of the community, and caused to know each other better. 



When pressed some months ago by the Council of the 

 British Association to give an evening lecture to the 

 working men of Dundee, my experience of the working 

 men of London naturally rose to my mind; and, though 

 heavily weighted with other duties, I could not bring 

 myself to decline the request of. the Council. Hitherto, 

 the evening discourses of the Association have been de- 



