246 MY LIFE 



Economy. Mr. Jevons was the author of a work on " Sys- 

 tematic Morality," very systematic and very correct, but as 

 dry as its title. He had a good library, and was supposed in 

 Neath to be a man of almost universal knowledge. I think 

 my brother William had become acquainted with him after I 

 left Neath, as he attended the funeral, and I and John spent 

 the evening with him. When I came to live in Neath after 

 my brother's death, I often saw him and occasionally visited 

 him, and I think borrowed books, and the following winter, 

 finding I was interested in science generally, he asked me to 

 give some familiar lectures or lessons to the mechanics of 

 Neath, who then met, I think, in one of the schoolrooms. I 

 was quite afraid of undertaking this, and tried all I could to 

 escape, but Mr. Jevons was very persistent, assured me that 

 they knew actually nothing of science, and that the very sim- 

 plest things, with a few diagrams and experiments, would be 

 sure to interest them. At last I reluctantly consented, and 

 begun with very short and simple talks on the facts and laws 

 of mechanics, the principle of the lever, pulley, screw, etc., 

 falling bodies and projectiles, the pendulum, etc. 



I got on fairly well at first, but on the second or third occa- 

 sion I was trying to explain something which required a 

 rather complex argument which I thought I knew perfectly, 

 when, in the middle of it, I seemed to lose myself and could 

 not think of the next step. After a minute's dead silence, 

 Mr. Jevons, who sat by me, said gently — " Never mind that 

 now. Go on to the next subject." I did so, but after a few 

 minutes, what I had forgotten became clear to me, and I 

 returned to it, and went over it with success. I gave these 

 lessons for two winters, going through the elementary por- 

 tions of physics ; and after a week in Paris in 1847, I gave to 

 the same audience a general account of the city, with special 

 reference to its architecture, museums, and gardens, showing 

 that it was often true that " they did these things better in 

 France." 1 



1 In 1895 I received a letter from Cardiff, from one of the work- 

 men who attended the Neath Mechanics' Institution, asking if the 

 author of " Island Life," the " Malay Archipelago," and other books is 



