ose who work in
them rendered capable, by previous culture, of _observing_ what they
see, the results might be incalculable. Who can say what intellectual
Samsons are at the present moment toiling with closed eyes in the
mills and forges of Manchester and Birmingham? Grant these Samsons
sight, and you multiply the chances of discovery, and with them the
prospects of national advancement. In our multitudinous technical
operations we are constantly playing with forces our ignorance of
which is often the cause of our destruction. There are agencies at
work in a locomotive of which the maker of it probably never dreamed,
but which nevertheless may be sufficient to convert it into an engine
of death. When we reflect on the intellectual condition of the people
who work in our coal mines, those terrific explosions which occur from
time to time need not astonish us. If these men possessed sufficient
physical knowledge, from the operatives themselves would probably
emanate a system by which these shocking accidents might be avoided.
Possessed of the knowledge, their personal interests would furnish the
necessary stimulus to its practical application, and thus two ends
would be served at the same time the elevation of the men and the
diminution of the calamity.

Before the present Course of Lectures was publicly announced, I had
many misgivings as to the propriety of my taking a part in them,
thinking that my place might be better filled by an older and more
experienced man. To my experience, however, such as it was, I
resolved to adhere, and I have therefore described things as they
revealed themselves to my own eyes, and have been enacted in my own
limited practice. There is one mind common to us all; and the true
expression of this mind, even in small particulars, will attest itself
by the response which it calls forth in the convictions of my hearers.
I ask your permission to proceed a little further in this fashion, and
to refer to a fact or two in addition to those already cited, which
presented themselves to my notice during my brief career as a teacher
in the college already alluded to. The facts, though extremely
humble, and deviating in some slight degree from the strict subject of
the present discourse, may yet serve to illustrate an educational
principle.

One of the duties which fell to my share was the instruction of a
class in mathematics, and I usually found that Euclid and the ancient
geometry general