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LEEDS chemists’ ASSOCIATION. 
burdened it is very well worth your while to learn by heart such poetry as may com¬ 
mend itself to your taste. I can assure you that in years to come, when the care and 
worry of business presses thick upon you, some remembrances of the grand old strains- 
will come like music to your soul, and help you onward, 
“ Much has been said lately about superficial acquirements, and doubtless there is 
truth in all that is said; yet, on the other hand, it may be urged that there are so many 
things demanding attention, all equally important, that it is wellnigh impossible to 
master any, and I think the attempt to do this may be a stumbling-block to some. You 
may love chemistry and science so much as to forget the claims of the counter—your 
master’s now, your own in the future. Therefore do not, in the laudable desire to be 
thorough, forget that you are a business man as w'ell as a scientific one. The chemist 
is expected, rightly or wrongly, to know something of everything, and I am inclined to 
think he had better be somewhat superficial than sacrifice to pure science the interests 
of his business. 
“ May I give another word of friendly advice to our young friends here before I close? 
As I said at the outset, I am young enough to have sympathy wdth you and your 
feelings. Eead sound good books ; no one expects you to read scientific "works only 
after a hard day’s work, but I may say this—don’t read trash. Eead something that 
will make you intelligent, whether it makes you a chemist or not. There are books 
of questionable tendency,—leave the perusal of them to those "whose character is ques¬ 
tionable, For yourselves, choose those which will elevate and refine, remembering that 
books are like companions, insensibly they mould your chai'acter. You could not read 
the lives of Fowell Buxton or William Allen, of Plough Court, without the desire, at 
any rate, to be in some respects like them ; and you cannot read English history, if you 
read it rightly, without feeling your bosom swell within you as the stirring memory of 
old times comes before you. All the long line from Alfred to Victoria is hallowed 
ground, marked here and there by altars, whereon have been laid continual sacrifice of 
all that-man counts dear, in order to hand down to our day a fair possession, an inheri¬ 
tance so rich in all its boundless stores of learning and wisdom, that not to claim our 
part in this great legacy were to show ourselves utterly unworthy of the race from 
which w'e are sprung, and the name w^e bear as Englishmen. I know quite well that 
this is not the time or place to give you a discourse on morals, but I may be forgiven if 
I say, that an acquaintance with the real,,the noble, and the true, will leave little room 
for the false, the unworthy, and the low. The state of the times seems to demand that 
the rising generation of men should be pre-eminently thoughtful men. A great move¬ 
ment is going on in the world of mind, and no one may say whither it tends ; on the one 
hand, we see a tendency to revive the past, and, on the other, a desire to quit ail the old 
paths ; certainly it is each one’s duty to acquire that solidity of character which is ever 
the best safeguard amid the changing currents of popular feeling. I recollect reading a 
short memoir of James Outram, who, without patronage or favour, fought his way to 
the front in our Indian army, and the closing lines of that memoir deeply impressed 
me. They embody the feeling I have attempted to infuse into my paper, that in the 
path of duty there is dignity, w'hatever the occupation, and therefore may fitly conclude 
my observations. 
‘ Xot once or twice in our rough island story. 
The path of duty was the way to gloiy. 
He that walks it, only thirsting 
For the right, before his journey closes. 
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting 
Into glossy purples, which outredden 
The voluptuous garden roses. 
Not once or twice in our fair island story. 
The path of duty was the way to glory.’ ” 
Several members joined in a discussion. 
Mr. CoRDiNGLEY (Associate) moved a vote of thanks to the author of the paper. He 
said that when he was an apprentice, which was in a town having between thirty and 
forty chemists. Ire availed himself of the scientific teachings afforded by the Chemical 
Class of the Mechanics’ Institution, but that he was the only student connected with the 
drug business. When taking a situation afterwards, he had found the knowledge so 
