in a poor cottage one of
the best collections of British butterflies and moths, made entirely by
himself. Many of them had been captured late at night on Chat Moss. A
hair-dresser has told how to watch the habits of birds was the delight
of his Sunday bicycle rides; his assistant called attention to some
little known poet whose works had a special appeal for him; another said
it was the study in his rare holidays at the seaside and in local
museums of some form of animal life--the name of it, now forgotten,
would convey no meaning to most University graduates--that made his
interest in life. You may find a large audience of workmen interested in
a lecture on Shelley, and some of them as well acquainted with his poems
as the lecturer. Such cases as these may perhaps be exceptional, but
given opportunity and sympathetic help and advice, they might be
multiplied almost indefinitely. Other men want time for cultivation of
allotments, which ought to be within the reach of thousands of urban
workers who find in them a perennial source of interest. A growing
number take a keen pleasure in seeing something of the beauties of their
own country. Tramping through the Yorkshire dales and knowing them well,
it was interesting to meet one who knew them better, and to find that he
was a chimney-sweep, who saved up his earnings to spend his holidays
regularly there.

The success of the Workers' Educational Association shows both the
strength of the demand among the workmen, and sometimes, too, among
working women, for intellectual life and their capacity to make use of
any opportunities offered for regular study. It is to be hoped that its
promoters will not forget that some branches of natural science and
literature, opening new realms of interest removed from the ordinary
cares of life, are at least as important subjects for study as economic
and social problems, and that one of the most important of such problems
is how to give those who must earn their daily bread by work that is
often dull and wearisome, the opportunity of sharing as far as possible
in the intellectual life. We may well wish Mr. Mansbridge and his
friends success as pioneers in the work of reconstruction, and renewed
and extended activity when the pressure of War requirements is removed.
It is to be hoped that the original ideals of the Association may never
be forgotten.

The aim of the Association is neither technical, i.e., to make workmen
better qualified f