DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

ro at my disposal, I will endeavour to illustrate my view, that desultory discourses and conversations may be made the basis of sound and useful know- ledge. | 1 am well aware that the audience I have the pleasure of addressing chiefly consists of working ) men. Your life is one of almost constant labour and toil. At an early hour you go either to the workshop, the factory, or the fields. And it is well that it is so. Without labour—and this statement applies to all classes—man’s life would | be a dreary and profitless waste, his mind would degenerate, and his sinews would relax. All credit and honour are due to him who ensures the comfort and happiness of his home and family by the manli- ness and energy of his work. But however laborious and energetic a man’s life may be, after his day’s work is over he requires change and recreation. The greater the change from his usual avocation the more welcome and beneficial it will prove. The late Lord Iddesleigh, in one of his speeches, said that after leaving the workshop, the factory, or even the much-vaunted allotment field, your first impulse f | engaged in a contested election, and so I may say | will be to spend some little time in recreation or that he never read so many novels as when he was in conversation. You will, especially during these short winter days, join in a game, or talk to a friend