a truly free spirit? Then, as I said just now, I know no
study so able to give that free habit of mind as the Study of Natural
Science.

Equality, too: whatever equality may or may not be just, or
possible; this at least, is just, and I hope possible; that every
man, every child, of every rank, should have an equal chance of
education; an equal chance of developing all that is in him by
nature; an equal chance of acquiring a fair knowledge of those facts
of the universe which specially concern him; and of having his reason
trained to judge of them. I say, whatever equal rights men may or
may not have, they have this right. Let every boy, every girl, have
an equal and sound education. If I had my way, I would give the same
education to the child of the collier and to the child of a peer. I
would see that they were taught the same things, and by the same
method. Let them all begin alike, say I. They will be handicapped
heavily enough as they go on in life, without our handicapping them
in their first race. Whatever stable they come out of, whatever
promise they show, let them all train alike, and start fair, and let
the best colt win.

Well: but there is a branch of education in which, even now, the
poor man can compete fairly against the rich; and that is, Natural
Science. In the first place, the rich, blind to their own interest,
have neglected it hitherto in their schools; so that they have not
the start of the poor man on that subject which they have on many.
In the next place, Natural Science is a subject which a man cannot
learn by paying for teachers. He must teach it himself, by patient
observation, by patient common sense. And if the poor man is not the
rich man's equal in those qualities, it must be his own fault, not
his purse's. Many shops have I seen about the world, in which fools
could buy articles more or less helpful to them; but never saw I yet
an observation-shop, nor a common-sense shop either. And if any man
says, "We must buy books:" I answer, a poor man now can obtain better
scientific books than a duke or a prince could sixty years ago,
simply because then the books did not exist. When I was a boy I
would have given much, or rather my father would have given much, if
I could have got hold of such scientific books as are to be found now
in any first-class elementary school. And if more expensive books
are needed; if a microscope or apparatus is