cases, in which the daily toil of life has been lightened and dignified by science. It is satisfactory, too, to note, that science in those cases was wooed without any pecuniary loss. Their love of science seemed to make them only more prosperous in business. It is frequently very different when the mechanic acquires a taste for light literature. Instead of strengthening his arm, like science, for daily toil, it too often enervates him, by fostering a disrelish for the stern duties of life. It is an encouraging fact, viewed in connexion with the elevation of the labouring classes, that in our large cities, especially in London, there is a steady demand amongst this class for the higher class mathematical works. The men that haunt old book-stalls in rusty coats or moleskin jackets, are not always bent, as we are apt to suppose, on the purchase of the ephemeral literature of former days; they are often pondering over the purchase of some work in mathematics which formerly was in repute, but which now, from changes in educational methods, may be purchased for a trifle. Many a mechanic is working hard at fluxions in his garret, ignorant of the improved notation of modern days. He finds his great reward in the delight which the exercise of his intellectual faculties affords, and, with no thought of scientific celebrity, he revels in the profundities of the higher calculus. Such pure and disinterested love of science is one of the most hopeful features of the labour question. It proves that the highest intel-
