THOUGHTS IN A GRAVEL-PIT; 



LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, we may of course think of 

 anything which we choose in a gravel-pit, as we may 

 anywhere else. Thought is free : at least so we 

 fancy. 



But the most right sort of thought, after all, is 

 thought about what lies nearest us ; not always, but 

 surely once in a way, that we may understand some- 

 thing of everyday objects. And therefore it may be 

 well worth our while to go once into a gravel-pit, 

 and think about it, till we have learnt what a gravel- 

 pit is. 



Learnt what a gravel-pit is ? Everybody knows. 



If it be so, everybody knows more than I know. 

 We all know a gravel- pit when we see one; but we do 

 not all know what we see. I do not know. I know 

 a little ; a few scraps of fact about these pits round 

 here, though about no others. Were I to go into a 

 pit a hundred miles, even fifty miles off, I could tell 

 you nothing certain about it ; perhaps might make a 

 dozen mistakes. But what I know, with tolerable 



* A Lecture delivered at the Mechanics' Institute, Odiham, 1857. 



