to scientific men.  The article was followed by others, all of the greatest interest and originality.  The man himself had little idea of the importance of his own discoveries.  When his cottage was besieged by leaders in the world of science, he was amazed; he showed his simple laboratory to his visitors; he spoke of his labours carelessly; he told them that he was a metal turner by trade, that he worked every day for an employer at a wage of thirty-five shillings a week, and that he was able to devote his evenings to reading and research.  They made him an F.R.S., the first working man who had ever attained that honour.  They tried to get him put upon the Civil List, but the First Lord of the Treasury had already, according to the usual custom, given away the annual grant made by the House for Literature, Science and Art, to the widows and daughters of Civil servants.  This attempt failing, the Royal Society, in order to take him away from his drudgery, created a small sinecure post for him, and in this way found an excuse for giving him a pension.

Then some writer in a London ‘Daily’ asked how it was that with his genius for science, which, it was now recalled, had been remarked while he was a student at the South London Poly, this man had been allowed to remain at his trade.

And the answer was, ‘Because there is no opening for such an one.’

It is very astonishing, when we consider the obvious nature of certain truths, to remark how slow man is to find them out.  Now, this exclusion of all those who could not afford to pay his toll to the man at the gate had, up to that moment, been accepted as if it were a law of Nature.  As in other things, men said, if they talked about the matter at all, ’What is, must be.  What is, shall be.  What is, has always been.  What is, has been ordained by God Himself.’  There is nothing more difficult than to effect a reform in men’s minds.  The reformer has, first, to persuade people to listen.  Sometimes he never succeeds, even in this, the very beginning.  When they do listen, the thing, being new to them, irritates them.  They therefore call him names.  If he persists they call him worse names.  If they can, they put him in prison, hang him, burn him.  If they cannot do this, and he goes on preaching new things, they presently begin to listen with more respect.  One or two converts are made.  The reformer expands his views; his demands become larger; his claims far exceed the modest dimensions of his first timid words.  And so the reform, bit by bit, is effected.

At first, then, the demand was for nothing more than an easier entrance into the scientific world, This naturally rose out of the case.  ‘Let us,’ they said, ’take care that to such a man as this any and every branch of science shall be thrown open.  But for that purpose it is necessary that scholarships, whether given at school or college, shall be sufficient for the maintenance as well as for the tuition fees