Town Geology | Page 6

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 needed;
can you not get them by the co-operative method, which has worked so

well in other matters? Can you not form yourselves into a Natural
Science club, for buying such things and lending them round among
your members; and for discussion also, the reading of scientific papers
of your own writing, the comparing of your observations, general
mutual help and mutual instructions? Such societies are becoming
numerous now, and gladly should I see one in every town. For in
science, as in most matters, "As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man
sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."
And Brotherhood: well, if you want that; if you want to mix with men,
and men, too, eminently worth mixing with, on the simple ground that
"a man's a man for a' that;" if you want to become the acquaintances,
and--if you prove worthy--the friends, of men who will be glad to teach
you all they know, and equally glad to learn from you anything you can
teach them, asking no questions about you, save, first--Is he an honest
student of Nature for her own sake? And next- -Is he a man who will
not quarrel, or otherwise behave in an unbrotherly fashion to his
fellow-students?--If you want a ground of brotherhood with men, not
merely in these islands, but in America, on the Continent--in a word, all
over the world--such as rank, wealth, fashion, or other artificial
arrangements of the world cannot give and cannot take away; if you
want to feel yourself as good as any man in theory, because you are as
good as any man in practice, except those who are better than you in
the same line, which is open to any and every man; if you wish to have
the inspiring and ennobling feeling of being a brother in a great
freemasonry which owns no difference of rank, of creed, or of
nationality--the only freemasonry, the only International League which
is likely to make mankind (as we all hope they will be some day)
one--then become men of science. Join the freemasonry in which Hugh
Miller, the poor Cromarty stonemason, in which Michael Faraday, the
poor bookbinder's boy, became the companions and friends of the
noblest and most learned on earth, looked up to by them not as equals
merely but as teachers and guides, because philosophers and
discoverers.
Do you wish to be great? Then be great with true greatness; which
is,--knowing the facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you

wish to be strong? Then be strong with true strength; which is, knowing
the facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you wish to be wise?
Then be wise with true wisdom; which is, knowing the facts of nature,
and being able to use them. Do you wish to be free? Then be free with
true freedom; which is again, knowing the facts of nature, and being
able to use them.
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