THE BLENHEIM MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 124, 4 July 1868, Page 4

THE BLENHEIM MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY.

“ This above all, —To thine ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man.” ——— Shakespeare. To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Mr. Editor, — In company with others, I last night paid a visit to the School-room, to hear a discussion as advertised, on a very old story—namely, “Was Elizabeth justified in causing the death of Mary Queen of Scots ?” Now, Sir, I am not going to criticise either the speakers or the subject, further than to say that if the Blenheim Mutual Improvement Society mean to become in reality what it is in name, it is my opinion they have begun at the wrong end. "He who would reach a high tower, must begin at the bottom end.” Genius may take lofty flights, but patient, steady industry is the only sure road to eminence in any walk of life. With such noble examples before us, we need not fear defeat ; with industry and patience for our watch-words, we must succeed. The accumulated stores of wealth of mind bequeathed to us by such names as Watt, Fulton, and George Stephenson, in developing that mighty power—the steam-engine ; of Wedgewood in the plastic arts; in electricity, Franklin, Morse, and Wheatstone ; in chemistry, such men as Davy, Faraday, and a host of others, all self-made men, whose names cast a halo of glory round the name of England. We cannot, Sir, all approach these great names, but we can all of us carry to the loom, the forge, and the workshop, scientific truths that will make better men working with more certain results. What untold wonders lie hid in chemistry and electricity; who can tell who shall make the next grand discoveries ? Certainly none in Blenheim, if they argue upon Mary Queen of Scots and kindred subjects, till the end of this century or the next. What we want is to go to school again to meet and form classes, “ where those who know little may teach those who know less, improving themselves, while they improve others; at all events setting a good example.” We have a few well-educated men amongst us, who would no doubt give lectures to such as chose to make any particular branch of science their study—music, singing, drawing, and its sister arts might all, we must admit, be very advantageously studied in this place for both pleasure and profit. The small cost of electric apparatus need not stand in the way ; the will is only wanted ; but if young gentlemen only desire to hear themselves talk, I very much fear they will share the fate of Esop’s apples in the flood. But if those gentlemen who started really wish for mutual improvement, I for one will cheerfully devote one evening a week to one class—namely, drawing and perspective, and I have no doubt others will be found to do the like, and so wipe out the reproach the closing of our Institution is calculated to bring upon us.—l am, yours, &c., W. N. Blenheim, July 1st, 1868.