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Mr. Gough, his cousin George Bewley gave up the school, and the two brothers who had assisted him thus announced their intention of continuing it.

"Jonathan & John Dalton respectfully inform their Friends, and the Public in General, that they intend to continue the school taught by George Bewley, where Youth will be carefully instructed in English, Latin, Greek, & French; also Writing, Arithmetic, Merchant's Accounts, and the Mathematics. The school to be opened on the 28th of March, 1785.

N.B. Youth boarded in the Masters' house on reasonable terms."

Their sister Mary came to keep the house, and their father and mother, then old people, frequently went to see them, walking through on one day over "mountain and slack" a distance of 45 miles.*

George Bewley lent them some money, probably the house or furniture answering to the sum, which was returned the same year; the father lent them seven guineas, "to be paid 9 mo. 29th," which they paid only a week behind time. And so they began life on a larger scale. They took care of their money, balanced their books every month, and put down every penny they spent. They had more than once to get a guinea from Mr. Lickbarrow and two from Mr. Kendal, and Mary had to give up her thirteen shillings and sixpence, and got paid in portions, "Mary, in part, 0. 0. 64" Mr. Benson too was paid all his money, and borrowings soon ceased. The whole sum got the first year was about £107, but a good deal of this had to be paid back, and indeed the average of the school was about seventy pounds a year. This was increased a few pounds by "drawing conditions," "collecting rents," "making wills," and "searching registers," but the amount gained by this means was seldom above five pounds a

John Robinson, in Mr. Dickinson's Letter.

year, although it rises to more than twice that sum in certain years. We do not know if Dalton so employed himself, certainly however his brother did so.

A second circular issued by the Daltons in the following year shews more fully the intentions of the school, and gives us also an idea of the enlarged views of education which Dalton took.

Kendal, July 5th, 1786.

"Jonathan & John Dalton take this method of returning their acknowledgments to their friends and the public for the encouragement they have received since their opening school; and from their care and assiduity in the management of it manifested in the improvement of the Youth under their care, are induced to hope for a continuation of their favours. They continue to teach on reasonable terms English, Latin, Greek, and French;

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N.B. Persons desirous of being instructed in the use of the globes, &c., will be waited upon any time out of school hours. The Public may also be informed, that they could conveniently teach a considerable number more than at present. Those who send their children may depend upon their being carefully instructed."

To his usual instruction in school he added lectures. It is certainly interesting to look over the syllabus published. We see him as an ardent young man, filled with ideas from every science, eager to tell them to others. We must remember

that he is a man of simple mind, who had never seen a large city, to whom the parade of the world and the unfortunate pride of successful science was known only from books, and we need not wonder that he expected on announcing the truths he had learned to an ignorant rural population, a crowd eager to hear them. Independent investigation had not yet contracted his field of interest, so to speak, for we find this effect produced of necessity in the mind which has for a long time travelled alone over an unmapped district. He is now 21 years of age, and gives the following programme of lectures.

Oct. 26th, 1787.

"Twelve lectures on Natural Philosophy to be read at the school (if a sufficient number of subscribers are procured) by John Dalton. To begin on Tuesday evening the 13th Nov. next, at 6 o'cl., and to continue every Tuesday and Thursday at the same hour till compleated.

Subscribers to the whole a guinea; or one shilling for single nights.

N.B. Subscribers to the whole course will have the liberty of requiring further explanation of subjects that may not be sufficiently discussed or clearly perceived when under immediate consideration; also of proposing doubts, objections, etc.; all which will be illustrated and obviated at suitable times to be mentioned at the commencement.

A Syllabus of the Lectures.

First & Second. Mechanics.

Introduction. Rules of Philosophizing on Matter and its Properties with the different opinions of the most famous Philosophers on this head.

The laws of motion.

pendulums.

Mechanic powers.

Vibration of

Third, Fourth, & Fifth. Optics.

Of the nature and properties of
Of reflected

Preliminary discourse.

light. Of simple vision.

Doctrine of colours.

Of re

vision. Of mirrors and images reflected from them. fracted vision, with the nature of lenses and images exhibited thereby. Of burning glasses. Description of the eye. Manner of vision. Of long and short sighted eyes. spectacles, telescopes, & microscopes. Of the rainbow. Sixth & Seventh. Pneumatics.

Of

Of the atmosphere. The elasticity of the air. Description of the air pump. The spring and weight of the air proved by a great variety of experiments on the air pump. Of respiration. Of sound. Of winds. Of the blueness of the sky. Of twilight.

Eighth, Ninth, & Tenth. Introduction. Of the solar system.

Astronomy.

Of the figures, magnitudes, distances, motion, &c. of the sun, planets, and comets. Of the progressive motion of light. Of the fixed stars and their phenomena.

eclipses, tides, &c.

Eleventh & Twelfth.

Of the lunar planets.

Use of the Globes.

Of

Figure of the Earth. Description of the globes. Various problems performed thereon, amongst which are, an explanation of the phenomena of the harvest-moon and the variations of the seasons.

Conclusion.

Ex rerum causis supremam noscere causam.'

999

Miss Johns, whose diary will be spoken of below, tells us that this very syllabus and one for 1792 came accidentally in his way in after life when he was looking over some old letters, having been detained in the house by a cold. He burst out into a loud laugh.

The accounts given of the Daltons as teachers lead us to believe them to have kept up the old system of great sternness and formality, although John's character seems to have been the milder of the two. Even during school hours he was much occupied with mathematics and making calculations at all spare moments on bits of paper that came in

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his way. This sternness of manner never left him, although his disposition was undoubtedly gentle. It may have arisen from having been compelled so long to continue his pursuits without the companionship of congenial minds, although even that does not sufficiently explain the cause, as we hear of others less befriended than Dalton whose disposition has retained its vivacity. It is greatly to be regretted that a journal containing all the minute particulars of his life at this period should be entirely lost. Portions which have been read to me by his friend Peter Clare introduce us into his character in a very pleasing manner. find him cheerful and easy, fond of a little innocent sport, and much attached to some games, but still so precise that every one was rigidly recorded and the results of the play of each party systematically compared. One evening at a house he visited, the company spent their time making verses; when the last word of one verse was told, the next person in order was expected to make a line to rhyme to it. It is curious to observe that every couplet, as well as the author of each, is carefully noted down in the diary. In this we have an early illustration of the great order that was a prominent point to be remembered in judging of his intellectual character. This does not deny the paradoxical addition of great carelessness. It was at this time that he was more especially a student of the Lady's Diary, and one of those who solved its problems, obtaining on several occasions the prize. Even at Eaglesfield, however, he was employed, although not with equal success, in the same manner, as Mr. Dickinson says, "When I was a boy I saw John Dalton at my cousin William Alderson's house, in Eaglesfield; they talked of days when they were lads together, sitting over the fire till midnight poring over the Lady's Diary. John never giving sleep to his eyelids until he had found out the riddle of some prize enigma or some mathematical question.'

We find him at this time making his own barometers and

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