298 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



temptation. Besides this, our factories and our foun- 

 dries present an extensive field of observation, and 

 were those who work in them rendered capable, by 

 previous culture, of observing what they see, the 

 results might be incalculable. Who can say what 

 intellectual Samsons are at the present moment toiling 

 with closed eyes in the mills and forges of Manchester 

 and Birmingham? Grant these Samsons sight, and 

 you multiply the chances of discovery, and with them 

 the prospects of national advancement. In our multi- 

 tudinous technical operations we are constantly playing 

 with forces our ignorance of which is often the cause of 

 our destruction. There are agencies at work in a 

 locomotive of which the maker of it probably never 

 dreamed, but which nevertheless may be sufficient 

 to convert it into an engine of death. When we 

 reflect on the intellectual condition of the people who 

 work in our coal mines, those terrific explosions which 

 occur from time to time need not astonish us. If these 

 men possessed sufficient physical knowledge, from the 

 operatives themselves would probably emanate a system 

 by which these shocking accidents might be avoided. 

 Possessed of the knowledge, their personal interests 

 would furnish the necessary stimulus to its practical 

 application, and thus two ends would be served at the 

 same time the elevation of the men and the diminu- 

 tion of the calamity. 



Before the present Course of Lectures was publicly 

 announced, I had many misgivings as to the propriety 

 of my taking a part in them, thinking that my place 

 might be better filled by an older and more experienced 

 man. To my experience, however, such as it was, I 

 resolved to adhere, and I have therefore described 

 things as they revealed themselves to my own eyes, and 

 have been enacted in my own limited practice. There 



