CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES, 471 



go to him and say that the men who are working in the laboratories and 

 have laid the foundations of the discoveries he uses in his daily life are 

 men who touch him very nearly and help on his prosperity very greatly. 

 That is the kind of missionary effort in which I believe every one of our 

 societies can heartily join. I have given a little attention lately to this 

 line of public advocacy in my own district, and I have found men, 

 particularly working men, very willing to listen to such arguments, 

 and if we can place before them definite examples, showing them, for 

 instance, in regard to electricity, how much Faraday working in his 

 laboratory did in pi-eparing the way for them to earn their living, tlie 

 work will be easy. That will make them see that science is a real thing 

 in their daily lives and an important factor in the prosperity of the 

 country. The first point, then, is to see if our societies cannot act as 

 missionary societies throughout the country in bringing home to the 

 working classes the real, live, not sentimental, business benefits which 

 result from the study of pure science and research. We have the 

 academic professor who loves and talks about the work, and we have the 

 * man in the street ' who takes a peculiar pride in declaring that he is a 

 practical man ; but there is no one to act as a go-between, bringing the 

 two together, and showing that, after all, theory is a real and practical 

 thing. There is a danger at the pi-esent moment, when academic fiscal 

 questions are being so much discu.ssecl, of getting entangled in one or 

 other of the great political parties. If we take part in the discussion, 

 and back any definite policy, there is great danger of the want of wisdom 

 of the few wrecking the success of the whole movement, or doing untold 

 injury for a long time to come. It is very necessary, therefore, that we 

 should pay particular attention to our steps, and carefully avoid, as our 

 President so admirably did last night, any reference or assumption which 

 can be put down to political views or political advocacy. If it is possible 

 to frame a line of action in that way we shall keep clear of political 

 entanglements, and we shall have the opportunity and the power of 

 securing some of the objects we have in view. I venture, with the 

 greatest diffidence, to difier from our President as to putting forward our 

 object so prominently. It is quite true we want to catch votes, but if 

 we start out with that as our avowed object we shall lessen our chance of 

 success. Let us appeal to the ' man in the street ' on the facts which 

 must convince him that science is of abiding benefit to him in his daily 

 life. Let us get him imbued with that idea, and votes will follow. 



Mr. W. F. Stanley (Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society) : 

 Principal Griffiths has spoken about the ' man in the street,' but if we 

 could just commence the study of science with the ' boy in the street ' we 

 should be getting a step forward. As long as our schools adhere to the 

 one simple rule of teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic according to 

 the old original code, which has been relaxed only very little, we shaU 

 never get a taste for spience among our population. I have noticed 

 that after teachirig the children reading, writing, and the old-fashioned 

 arithmetic, together with a large amount of grammar — much jnore than 

 I ever acquirecj myself — they develop a taste for a certain class of 

 literature, f^nd mn^ny of these scholars become writers for the penny 

 journals. If we hcT,d taken the same amount of pains to give these 

 children educational tastes as I have seen done in Norway and in Germany 

 it would have been much better. I should like to ?ee the children in our 

 gcjiools taught the things which surrounj^ t^^^ip, ^r|d the principles of 



