302 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



your judgment to decide whether such facts are truly 

 representative and general, and not merely individual 

 and local. 



At an agricultural college in Hampshire, with which 

 I was connected for some time, and which is now con- 

 verted into a school for the general education of youth, 

 a society was formed among the boys, who met weekly 

 for the purpose of reading reports and papers upon vari- 

 ous subjects. The society had its president and treasurer; 

 and abstracts of its proceedings were published in a little 

 monthly periodical issuing from the school press. One of 

 the most remarkable features of these weekly meetings 

 was, that after the general business had been concluded 

 each member enjoyed the right of asking questions on 

 any subject on which he desired information. The ques- 

 tions were either written out previously in a book, or, if 

 a question happened to suggest itself during the meeting, 

 it was written upon a slip of paper and handed in to the 

 secretary, who afterward read all the questions aloud. A 

 number of teachers were usually present, and they and 

 the boys made a common stock of their wisdom in fur- 

 nishing replies. As might be expected from an assem- 

 blage of eighty or ninety boys, varying from eighteen to 

 eight years old, many odd questions were proposed. To 

 the mind which loves to detect in the tendencies of the 

 young the instincts of humanity generally, such questions 

 are not without a certain philosophic interest, and I have 

 therefore thought it not derogatory to the present course 

 of Lectures to copy a few of them and to introduce them 

 here. They run as follows : 



What are the duties of the Astronomer Koyal? 



What is frost ? 



