246 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



blocks gave the whole a decidedly architectural appearance. 

 It is now used as a free library, and through the kindness of 

 Miss Florence Neale, of Penarth, I am enabled to give a 

 photographic reproduction of it. 



This reminds me that the Mechanics' Institution was, I 

 think, established by Mr. William Jevons, a retired merchant 

 or manufacturer of Liverpool, and the uncle of William 

 Stanley Jevons, the well-known writer on Logic and Political 

 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 

 simplest things, with a few diagrams and experiments, would 

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

 and began 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 

 occasion 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, 

 and 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 



