54 FEAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



one of its benches would be occupied on these occa- 

 sions. It is, moreover, worthy of remark that the lec- 

 tures 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 de- 

 sire for knowledge, as a thing good in itself, and with- 

 out regard to its practical application, which animates 

 the hearers of these lectures. 



It is also my privilege to lecture to another audi- 

 ence in London, composed in part of the aristocracy of 

 rank, while the audience just referred to is composed 

 wholly of the aristocracy of labour. As regards at- 

 tention and courtesy to the lecturer, neither of these 

 audiences has anything 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 labour, as I have just called them. At all events, 

 their conduct demonstrates that the essential qualities 

 of what we in England understand by a gentleman 

 are confined to no class; and they have often raised 

 in my mind the wish that the gentlemen of all classes, 

 artisans as well as lords, could, by some process of selec- 

 tion, 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 delivered before its members and associates 



