ontact
had thus a new interest and significance imparted to them. The swing,
the see-saw, the tension of the giant-stride ropes, the fall and
rebound of the football, the advantage of a small boy over a large one
when turning short, particularly in slippy weather; all became
subjects of investigation. A lady stands before a looking-glass, of
her own height; it was required to know how much of the glass was
really useful to her? We learned with pleasure the economic fact that
she might dispense with the lower half and see her whole figure
notwithstanding. It was also pleasant to prove by mathematics, and
verify by experiment, that the angular velocity of a reflected beam is
twice that of the mirror which reflects it. From the hum of a bee we
were able to determine the number of times the insect flaps its wings
in a second. Following up our researches upon the pendulum, we
learned how Colonel Sabine had made it the means of determining the
figure of the earth; and we were also startled by the inference which
the pendulum enabled us to draw, that if the diurnal velocity of the
earth were seventeen times its present amount, the centrifugal force
at the equator would be precisely equal to the force of gravitation,
so that an inhabitant of those regions would then have the same
tendency to fall upwards as downwards. All these things were sources
of wonder and delight to us: and when we remembered that we were
gifted with the powers which had reached such results, and that the
same great field was ours to work in, our hopes arose that at some
future day we might possibly push the subject a little further, and
add our own victories to the conquests already won.

I ought to apologise to you for dwelling so long upon this subject;
but the days spent among these young philosophers made a deep
impression on me. I learned among them something of myself and of
human nature, and obtained some notion of a teacher's vocation. If
there be one profession in England of paramount importance, I believe
it to be that of the schoolmaster; and if there be a position where
selfishness and incompetence do most serious mischief, by lowering the
moral tone and exciting irreverence and cunning where reverence and
noble truthfulness ought to be the feelings evoked, it is that of the
principal of a school. When a man of enlarged heart and mind comes
among boys, when he allows his spirit to stream through them, and
observes the operation of