Pop2ilar Education^ and Other Matters, 225 



 



an hour or less was all that could be allowed, I was com- 

 pelled hastily to scratch it, and I overcut it. Kitty went 

 with me. Just before I began, in came Tyndall. I thought 

 I saw through that dodge in a moment. Spencer is out of 

 town, has been away for a fortnight, expected to return, I 

 am told, to-night, and as he was evidently solicitous about 

 the result he got Tyndall to go. Whichever way it be, it 

 was fortunate, and I am certainly much obliged to him for 

 his consideration, for the meat was too strong for the 

 babes. They were restless, and as I said thing after thing, 

 a dozen pens sprang convulsively to paper, to note them 

 down and blow them up. There was the closest attention, 

 and at all events I had them in hand. At the close there 

 was cordial applause — as usual, I suppose. A gentleman 

 then arose, and said he was attracted to the meeting by the 

 announcement of my name, having read a very remark- 

 able argument in the shape of an introduction to a work 

 on chemistry lent him by his friend Dr. Farr (to whom 

 I had given a copy), and he said, '' I was, therefore, less 

 taken by surprise at the paper we have just heard than 

 most of you have evidently been." After a very pleasant 

 and excellent address, in which he said Locke had laid 

 down the true view of the basis of education two centuries 

 since, which, if followed out, would have produced the most 

 beneficent results, he sat down and Tyndall arose. He 

 made an exceedingly neat and happy address, into the very 

 notch of the case. He put the plaster on large and thick 

 and close, as he best of all men knows how to do, and the 

 consequence was that all subsequent remarks were but 

 adding lesser patches. One good old gentleman of the 

 old school did not really seem to see that there were yet 

 the materials of a new science of human nature, but hoped 

 there would be. The president wound up with a little 

 speech, demurring somewhat to the strictures on the pres- 

 ent spirit of teachers, but saying frankly that the address 



