Extracts from Addresses 369
of the line, and the other is at the other end. One might be called the
extreme of the æsthetie; and in between the two there is the customary
range.
Dr. Joly: I found myself upstairs before coming into this hospitable
hall, and I was greatly pleased, and may I say, indeed, touched, to sit
and listen as if fifty years had passed away from me and I was young
again, to sit and listen to a couple of the classes in some of the rooms
upstairs. I got a lesson in physiology, and I got a lesson in physiognomy.
I had a chance of inspecting a drawing school and talking to the boys,
and telling them something about my own experience as a teacher of
engineering science. I think it would be impossible to find more intelli-
gent and lovable children than I have met in this building. I think my
visit here will always be associated with the attractiveness of your Ameri-
can children, as I have met them here, and with the exquisite singing to
which I have listened in this room. When I was upstairs I could not help
thinking of and recalling some reminiscences of my own school days, ɪ
will just tell you one, although it cannot pretend to be a particularly
funny story.
I was in a school near Dublin, which was kept by a very curious and
a very clever man, a man who was born to be a schoolmaster, a man by
the name of Dr. Charles Benson—Rev. Charles Benson. Perhaps some-
one here knows of him. He is still alive. I remember one day he asked
us why it is that a dog turns around twice before it lies down. You have
noticed a dog. It is a fact that a dog turns around twice before it lies
down. He put this to us, and one little boy gave the answer: “Because
one good turn deserves another.” I still dwell at moments over that
story, and, of course, you who are schoolmasters occasionally have those
events to keep you happy. Otherwise I think you would die from the
mere sense of your responsibilities. I will tell you another little incident
of school life. A friend of mine, who is an inspector of national schools,
as we call it in Ireland, was inspecting a school in the south of Ireland,
and he wanted to test the mathematical ability of the children. So he
asked a little girl to name a number, and she after some hesitation said
“18.” He took the chalk and wrote on the board “8i,” and nobody made
any remark. He looked around him and asked another child to name a
number, and the other child said “28,” and he wrote up “82.” Still no-
body made any remark, and nobody seemed to see there was any differ-
ence between 28 and 82. He tried a number of the children in this way,
and nobody in the least took any notice of his procedure. At last he
stumbled upon one little boy, the ubiquitous small boy, that is supposed to
be everywhere, and he said rather impatiently: “Now, my little boy, I